UC-NRLF 


[From  a  portrait  in  the  possession  of  Miss  M.  B.  P.  Garnett,  Hoboken.j 


ptograpfnes?  of  ieabing  Americans; 

Edited  by  W.  P.  TRENT 

LEADING     AMERICAN 
INVENTORS 


BY 


GEORGE    ILES 

Author  of  "Flame,  Electricity  and  the  Camera"  and 
"Inventors  at  Work'''' 


WITH    FIFTEEN    PORTRAITS    AND 
MANY    ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 
1912 


COPYRIGHT,  1912, 

BY 
HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

Published  November,  191y 


THE  QUINN  A  80DEN  CO.  PRESS 
RAHWAr,  N.  j. 


TO 

MY   DEAREST   FRIEND 
GEORGE  FREDERICK  GUMMING  SMILLIE 

ARTIST- EN  GRAVER 
OF   WASHINGTON,    D.  C. 


259887 


INTRODUCTORY 

WITHIN  its  twelve  chapters  this  book  presents  a  group  of 
leading  American  inventors  of  the  past.  First  in  time,  and, 
in  many  respects,  first  in  talent,  is  Colonel  John  Stevens, 
who  built  a  successful  screw  propeller,  and  who  devised  a 
sectional  boiler  of  a  model  which,  duly  modified,  is  in  wide 
use  to-day.  Beside  him  stands  his  son  Robert,  who  devised 
the  T-rail  and  much  other  equipment  for  railroads  and  work- 
shops. Fulton  comes  next  with  his  Clermont  and  his  tor- 
pedoes, an  inventor  with  a  statesman's  breadth  of  mind, 
with  the  outlook  of  an  artist  no  less  than  that  of  an  engineer. 
The  mastery  of  land  and  sea  is  continued  by  Ericsson  with 
his  Novelty  locomotive,  his  Monitor,  and  his  caloric  engine. 
These  four  great  engineers  are  succeeded  by  four  mechanics, 
each  the  leader  of  an  industrial  revolution.  First  Whitney, 
with  his  cotton-gin ;  then  Blanchard,  with  his  copying  lathe  ; 
McCormick,  with  his  reaper;  Howe,  with  his  sewing- 
machine.  Then,  all  alone,  stands  Charles  Goodyear,  who 
came  to  the  vulcanization  of  rubber  by  dint  of  a  courage 
unsurpassed  in  the  annals  of  peace  or  war.  A  final  quartette 
are  inventors  who  broadened  the  empire  of  the  printed  word : 
Morse,  who  gave  electricity  a  pencil  to  write  its  messages 
a  thousand  miles  away ;  Tilghman,  who  derived  paper  from 
wood  so  as  to  create  a  new  basic  industry  for  mankind ; 
Sholes,  who  built  a  typewriter  to  replace  the  pen  with  the 
legibility  and  swiftness  of  printing;  and  last  of  all,  Mer- 
genthaler,  who  took  a  Sholes  keyboard,  and  bade  it  com- 
pose both  the  columns  of  newspapers  and  the  pages  of  a 
book. 

The  sketches  of  these  heroes  and  their  exploits  include 
much  information  never  published  before.  Inventors  are 
apt  to  be  a  silent  race,  more  given  to  experiment  than  to 

vii 


viii  INTRODUCTORY 

recording  its  results.  We  can  retrace  only  a  few  of  the 
steps  which  took  such  a  man  as  Blanchard,  for  instance, 
from  apprenticeship  to  primacy  and  triumph.  Mergen- 
thaler,  fortunately,  during  months  of  rest  and  quiet  as  an 
invalid,  wrote  his  autobiography.  His  son,  Mr.  Eugene  G. 
Mergenthaler,  has  permitted  several  of  its  golden  pages  to 
appear  in  this  volume.  They  picture  the  formative  years  of 
one  of  the  great  inventors  of  all  time. 

Where  opportunity  has  proffered  itself,  a  contrast  be- 
twixt old  and  new,  the  days  of  small  things  and  the  present 
hour,  is  exhibited.  Noteworthy  here  is  the  comparison  of 
modern  telegraphy  with  its  puny  beginnings,  involving  a 
struggle  which  all  but  overwhelmed  Morse,  the  dauntless 
pioneer. 

In  preparing  this  book  I  have  received  much  generous  aid. 
The  Stevens  chapter  owes  many  facts  to  President  A.  C. 
Humphreys  and  Professor  F.  de  R.  Furman  of  Stevens  Insti- 
tute, as  well  as  to  Mr.  Edwin  A.  S.  Brown  of  Hoboken.  The 
pages  on  Eli  Whitney  are  largely  drawn  from  contributions 
by  his  grandson  and  namesake  of  New  Haven,  Connecticut. 
Mr.  Edward  Lind  Morse  of  Stockbridge,  Massachusetts,  son 
of  Professor  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  has  given  me  much  in- 
formation. Mr.  James  Cumming  Vail  of  Morristown,  New 
Jersey,  sent  me  the  portrait  of  his  father  printed  in  this  vol- 
ume, and  has  rendered  me  constant  help.  From  Mr.  S.  M. 
Williams  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company,  New 
York,  came  the  statistics  which  round  off  the  sketch  of 
American  telegraphy.  The  chapter  on  Charles  Goodyear  is 
mainly  derived  from  his  notebook,  lent  by  his  grandson, 
Mr.  Nelson  Goodyear  of  New  York.  Professor  William  H. 
Goodyear,  a  son  of  Charles  Goodyear,  has  given  me  interest- 
ing facts  hitherto  unpublished.  I  owe  an  informing  survey 
of  a  model  rubber  factory  to  Mr.  A.  D.  Thornton,  chemical 
director  of  the  Canadian  Consolidated  Rubber  Company, 
Montreal.  In  reciting  the  story  of  rubber  I  was  favored  with 


INTRODUCTORY  ix 

indispensable  aid  by  Mr.  Henry  C.  Pearson,  editor  of  the 
India  Rubber  World,  New  York.  From  the  late  Mr.  Bruce 
J.  Home  and  his  son,  Mr.  Robert  Home,  of  Edinburgh, 
Scotland,  came  the  narrative  by  Patrick  Bell  of  his  inven- 
tion of  the  reaper.  This  story  has,  I  believe,  never  before 
appeared  in  America.  From  Mr.  Louis  Sholes  of  Milwau- 
kee, and  Mr.  Zalmon  P.  Sholes  of  New  York,  I  have  learned 
much  as  to  the  career  of  their  honored  father.  My  in- 
formation regarding  General  Benjamin  C.  Tilghman  was  in 
chief  part  contributed  by  his  niece,  Miss  Emily  Tilghman 
of  Philadelphia;  and  by  Mr.  F.  C.  Brooksbank  and  Mr.  F. 
E.  Hyslop,  long  associated  with  the  General.  For  the  Mer- 
genthaler  chapter  I  received  cordial  aid  from  Mr.  Norman 
Dodge  of  the  Mergenthaler  Linotype  Company  of  New 
York,  Mr.  Frank  P.  Hill,  librarian  of  the  Public  Library, 
Brooklyn,  Mr.  R.  C.  Jenkinson  of  Newark,  New  Jersey,  and 
Mr.  W.  F.  Schuckers  of  Washington,  D.  C.  From  first  to 
last  my  task  in  writing  this  book  has  been  loyally  seconded 
by  Mr.  William  Murdoch  Lind  of  New  York. 

GEORGE  ILES. 
NEW  YORK,  November,  1912. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS       .        .        .        .         .        3 

ROBERT  FULTON      .        .       ..        .        •        •        •        •        •         .4° 

ELI  WHITNEY        "  .         .         .        .        .        •     ,  •        •        •         •       75 

THOMAS  BLANCHARD        .         .         .        .        .....         •     IO4 

SAMUEL  FINLEY  BREESE  MORSE     .         .         .         ...         .     "9 

CHARLES  GOODYEAR         » «         •     J76 

JOHN  ERICSSON        .        .        .  2l8 

CYRUS  HALL  McCoKMiCK •     276 

CHRISTOPHER  LATHAM  SHOLES .     3T5 

ELIAS  HOWE    ...        .        .        .         .         .....        -338 

13  EN  JAM  IN  CHEW  TlLGHMAN 369 

OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER 393 

INDEX  435 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PORTRAITS 

PAGE 

JOHN  STEVENS •         Frontispiece 

ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS 28 

EDWIN  AUGUSTUS  STEVENS 34 

ROBERT  FULTON 4° 

ELI  WHITNEY 75 

THOMAS  BLANCHARD IO4 

SAMUEL  FINLEY  BREESE  MORSE 119 

ALFRED  VAIL J58 

CHARLES  GOODYEAR J76 

JOHN  ERICSSON 218 

CYRUS  HALL  MCCORMICK 276 

CF.RISTOPHER  LATHAM  SHOLES 3^5 

ELIAS  HOWE .-338 

BENJAMIN  CHEW  TILGHMAN  .                369 

OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER 393 

OTHER  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Boiler,  Engine,  and  Propellers  of  the  1804  Boat  .  .  .  10 

The  Twin-screw  Propeller  of  1804 14 

An  Enlarged  Section  of  an  Edge-rail  to  Show  the  Disposition 

of  Parts  which  Gives  Greatest  Strength  ....  22 
Facsimile  of  Sketch  of  Cross-section,  Side  Elevation,  and 

Ground  Plan  of  the  First  T-rail 22 

First  Train  on  the  Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad  ...  24 

The  Stevens  Battery  in  Her  Dry  Dock 32 

William  Symington's  Steamboat,  Charlotte  Dundas  .  -57 

Machinery  of  Fulton's  Steamboat,  Clermont  .  .  ,  .  60 

Plan  of  the  Clermont 62 

Plan  of  Whitney's  Cotton  Gin 80 

Whitney  Cotton  Gin 82 

Original  Blanchard  Lathe 106 

Blanchard  Tack  Machine  . m 

Blanchard's  Machine  for  Bending  Wood 117 

Chappe  Telegraph 135 

xiii 


xiv  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Morse  First  Telegraph  Instrument       ......  143 

A  Rough  Drawing  Made  by  Morse  in  1870  to  Show  the  First 
Form  of  the  Alphabet  and  the  Changes  to  the    Present 

Form         ...........  150 

The  Baltimore  Recording  Instrument  of  1844     .         .         .         .161 

Vail's  Original  Finger  Key  of  1844 164 

Horseman  in   Waterproofs.     Life-Boat.     Drawn    by  Charles 

Goodyear 208 

The  Novelty  Locomotive 223 

Ericsson  Caloric  Engine        .        .        .        .        .         ...         .  226 

The  Monitor 247 

Floating  Battery  Invented  by  Abraham  Bloodgood  .         .         .  255 
Longitudinal   Section  of  Destroyer,  Showing  Gun  and  Pro- 
jectile         .        .  263 

Solar  Engine,  Operated  by  the  Intervention  of  Atmospheric  Air  270 

Pitt's  Rippling  Cylinder .         .  281 

Ogle's  Reaper •        . "       .  283 

Bell's  Reaper           .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .  284 

Bell's  Reaper  at  Work    .        .        .        .        .        .        .                 .  291 

Hussey's  Harvester  Finger  ....        1        ...  292 

McCormick  Reaper,  1834 .  295 

McCormick  Reaper,  1845 300 

McCormick  Reaper  Shown  at  the  Great  Exhibition,  London, 

1851 303 

Typewriter,  First  Patent,  Sholes,  Glidden,  and  Soule,  1868      .  325 
Foucault's   Printing  Key  Frame,    by  Which   the   Blind  may 

Write 327 

Sholes  Typewriter,  1873 328 

A  Note  to  Edwin  J.  Ingersoll  on  an  Early  Sholes  Machine       .  329 

Saint's  Sewing  Machine,  1790 339 

The  First  Howe  Sewing  Machine        ......  350 

Chain-stitch  and  Lock-stitch 359 

Wilson's  Rotary  Hook  in  Four  Phases  of  Forming  a  Stitch      .  364 

Tilghman  Sand  Blast 382 

The  Tilghman  Sand  Blast  Machine 383 

Etching  with  Sand  from  a  Hopper 385 

Linotype  Matrix .  396 

Line  of  Matrices  with  Justifiers  Between  the  Words          .        .  396 

A  Line  o'  Type  (Slug) 397 

Distributor  Bar  and  Matrices        .        .        .        .        .        .        .  397 

Diagram  of  Linotype  Machine 398 

Mold  Wheel  and  Melting  Pot 399 

A  Transfer  Sheet.     Charles  T.  Moore 407 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 

PAGE 

Linotype.     First  Band  Machine  of  1883       .....  412 

Mergenthaler's  Graduated  Wedge  Justifier          ....  414 

Linotype.     First  Direct  Casting  Band  Machine  of  1884     .         .  414 
Linotype.     First  Machine  with  Independent  or  free  Matrices 

of  1885       .         .         .      .-.'•'.        »       •.        .  '      *        .         .  420 

Linotype.      Tribune  Machine  of  1886  ...       -.         .        .         .  422 

The  Linotype  Machine,  1889          .        .        *                .         .         .  428 

Two  Wedges  in  Contact,  Their  Outer  Edges  Parallel        .         .  429 

J.  W.  Schuckers  Double  Wedge  Justifier             .        ,  430 


LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON 
STEVENS 

A  BIRD  builds  its  nest  from  an  impulse  which  fills  its 
heart.  A  like  instinct,  every  whit  as  compelling,  urges  a 
Mergenthaler  to  create  a  composing  machine.  He  con- 
ceives its  plan,  and,  while  his  wheels  and  levers  unite  under 
his  touch,  he  sees  how  he  can  remodel  every  part  from  base 
to  crest.  This  rebuilding  is  no  sooner  accomplished  than 
the  machine  is  cast  into  the  melting-pot,  to  emerge  with  a 
new  pace  and  precision.  If,  incidentally,  this  man  of  ex- 
periment can  earn  his  bread,  well  and  good,  but  there  may 
be  no  gold  in  the  horizon  which  allures  him.  It  is  enough 
that  his  new  devices  glide  together  with  the  harmony  and 
economy  of  his  dreams. 

But  among  inventors  we  meet  men  of  a  wholly  different 
stamp.  First  and  last,  they  are  pioneers  who  descry  new 
worlds  for  industrial  conquest.  To  plant,  till,  and  water 
these  empires  they  need  new  tools,  machines,  and  engines. 
These  they  build,  not  for  the  joy  of  building,  as  might  your 
instinctive  inventor,  but  simply  as  means  to  the  mastery  of  a 
continent,  with  fibers  of  gainful  service  reaching  every  home 
in  the  land.  Preeminent  in  this  company  of  industrial 
chieftains  in  America  stand  John  Stevens  and  his  son,  Rob- 
ert Livingston  Stevens,  who  seized  a  supreme  opportunity 
as  they  yoked  steam  as  a  burden-bearer  on  land  and  sea. 
They  were  themselves  engineers  of  original  talent,  and  this 
gave  them  a  fellow-feeling  with  the  engineering  fraternity 
not  always  found  in  the  councils  of  great  firms  and  corpora- 
tions. Of  course,  such  men,  however  ingenious  and  skilful, 
never  rise  to  such  a  triumph  as  the  steam  condenser  of  James 
Watt.  In  their  schemes  invention  is  always  the  servant 

3 


i: .:  :  V  liEADING;  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

of  enterprise,  and  not  for  a  moment  its  master.  From  the 
best  engineering  practice  of  their  day  the  Stevenses  chose 
this  device,  or  that  method,  with  a  judgment  cooled  and 
steadied  by  the  responsibilities  of  large  investments.  Where 
original  inventions  were  demanded,  these  they  created,  all  to 
rear  units  for  trade  and  commerce  wholly  new,  units  so 
daring  that  men  of  narrow  outlook  and  restricted  means 
would  never  have  called  them  into  being. 

Goodyear,  Howe,  and  Mergenthaler,  beset  by  chronic 
poverty,  in  building  their  models  were  obliged  to  limit  them- 
selves to  dimes  when  they  should  have  laid  out  dollars.  Not 
so  with  the  Stevens  family :  their  work  from  the  outset  drew 
upon  every  source  of  aid  and  comfort.  Before  they  touched 
a  drawing-board  with  a  pencil,  they  could  fully  learn  the 
state  of  the  art  in  which  they  meant  to  take  new  strides: 
they  could  confer  with  their  peers  in  engineering  circles 
both  at  home  and  abroad.  Mechanics  of  the  highest  skill 
stood  ready  to  carry  their  plans  into  effect  with  despatch. 
When  their  experiments  turned  out  well,  as  they  usually 
did,  there  was  no  weary  waiting  in  the  ante-rooms  of  cap- 
ital that  their  ventures  might  be  adopted.  The  Stevenses 
were  themselves  men  of  wealth,  so  that  when  they  launched 
a  steamboat,  its  freight  and  passengers  were  ready  to  go  on 
board.  If  they  built  a  locomotive,  they  could  also  build  a 
railroad  to  give  it  profitable  traffic.  Poverty  as  a  sharpener 
of  wits  has  had  much  and  frequent  praise.  Let  us  sing  a 
new  song,  this  time  unto  wealth !  The  race  is  not  always  to 
the  impeded,  and  much  sound  fruit  mellows  in  the  sunshine, 
and  nowhere  else.  The  Stevenses  were  leaders  whom  other 
men  were  glad  to  follow,  well  aware  that  their  path  was 
free  from  obstacles,  so  that,  in  a  following,  more  was  to  be 
won  and  more  to  be  shared  than  under  chieftains  of  less 
faculty  and  fortune.  As  America  grows  richer,  we  are 
likely  to  see  more  of  this  leadership  on  the  part  of  wealthy 
and  cultured  men  who,  alive  to  their  responsibilities,  repay 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS     5 

their  debt  to  the  nation  by  wise  and  faithful  captaincy. 
There  are  many  perplexities  in  productive  and  distributive 
economy,  in  governmental  reform,  largely  created  by  ad- 
vances in  applied  science  itself.  For  their  solution,  trained 
ability,  backed  by  abundant  means,  is  demanded.  Better 
than  a  Board  for  such  tasks  may  be  an  Individual  Man,  and 
no  better  prototype  of  him  has  appeared  in  this  country 
than  John  Stevens,  or  his  son,  Robert  Livingston  Stevens, 
whom  we  are  now  to  know. 

John  Stevens  was  born  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  1749. 
His  grandfather  came  to  New  York  early  in  the  eighteenth 
century  as  a  law  officer  of  the  British  Crown,  and  afterward 
resided  in  Perth  Amboy,  then  the  principal  town  in  Eastern 
New  Jersey.  John  Stevens,  a  son  of  this  Englishman,  rose 
to  distinction  in  public  service.  At  Princeton  he  was  vice- 
president  of  the  Council  convened  on  August  27,  1776,  by 
the  first  Legislature  of  New  Jersey.  So  well  did  he  serve 
that  he  was  chosen  to  preside  over  the  Council  of  Eastern 
New  Jersey  proprietors.  Next  he  was  elected  a  Member 
of  Congress  for  New  Jersey,  and  president  of  the  State 
Convention,  which  met  on  December  n,  1787,  to  consider 
the  National  Constitution,  duly  adopted  eleven  days  there- 
after by  New  Jersey,  as  the  third  commonwealth  to  do  so. 
He  was  the  delegate  from  his  State  to  present  this  ratifica- 
tion to  Congress.  Here,  plainly,  was  a  man  cast  in  a  large 
mold, — an  administrator  of  acknowledged  power,  the  first 
among  equals  to  lay  foundations  broad  and  deep  for  his 
State  and  his  country.  In  the  tpme  of  this  man  questions  as 
wide  as  America  were  discussed  day  by  day,  with  hope  for 
happy  issues,  with  courage  for  whatever  might  befall.  He 
was,  moreover,  a  man  of  ample  fortune,  so  that  the  talents 
of  his  children  had  generous  and  timely  tilth,  bringing  to 
their  best  estate  a  fiber  at  once  refined  and  strong. 

John  Stevens  took  to  wife  Mary  Alexander,  of  as  good 
blood  as  himself.  She  was  a  daughter  of  the  Honorable 


6  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

James  Alexander,  Surveyor-General  of  New  York  and  New 
Jersey.  This  worthy  had  gifts  as  an  amateur  student  of 
the  heavens ;  for  years  he  corresponded  with  Edmund  Hal- 
ley,  the  English  astronomer.  John  Stevens,  as  son  of  this 
pair,  was  born,  as  we  have  said,  in  New  York  in  1749. 
During  1762  and  1763  he  attended  Kenersly's  College  in 
Perth  Amboy,  New  Jersey.  Thence  he  passed  to  Columbia 
College,  New  York,  where  he  was  graduated  in  1768. 
Among  his  classmates  were  three  lifelong  friends,  who  rose 
to  eminence, — Gulian  Verplanck,  as  an  author;  Gouverneur 
Morris,  in  public  life;  and  Benjamin  Moore,  who  became 
the  second  bishop  of  New  York.  With  the  best  academic 
training  of  his  day,  young  Stevens  took  up  the  study  of  law, 
receiving  his  license  as  an  attorney  on  May  i,  1772.  Law, 
however,  he  never  practised ;  but  his  legal  discipline  inured 
throughout  his  life  to  an  uncommon  clarity  of  deduction 
and  of  statement.  He  early  entered  heart  and  soul  into  his 
father's  convictions  regarding  the  new-born  Union,  and  the 
defense  it  should  command.  In  1776  he  became  a  Captain 
in  Colonel  Beaver's  Battalion ;  he  was  soon  the  Colonel  of  a 
regiment  of  his  own.  Like  his  father,  he  was  marked  for 
public  trusts  at  an  early  age.  From  1777  to  1782  he  was 
the  faithful  and  honored  Treasurer  of  New  Jersey,  a  post 
which  broadened  his  knowledge  of  business  while  it  matured 
his  executive  faculty. 

Toward  the  close  of  his  term  of  office,  on  October  17, 
1782,  Colonel  Stevens  married  Miss  Rachel  Cox  of  Blooms- 
bury,  New  Jersey.  Soon  afterward  the  wedded  pair  re- 
moved to  New  York,  establishing  their  home  in  the  house 
vacated  by  the  Colonel's  father  at  7  Broadway,  opposite 
Bowling  Green.  Here  the  Colonel  and  his  family  resided 
until  1814,  for  thirty-one  years.  In  March,  1784,  Colonel 
Stevens  bought  for  ninety  thousand  dollars  the  confiscated 
lands  of  William  Bayard,  a  Tory,  across  the  Hudson  River, 
comprising  what  was  then  the  Island  of  Hoboken.  In  addi- 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS     7 

tion  he  purchased  a  large  adjoining  tract  of  land  in  Wee- 
hawken.  Soon  after  these  acquisitions,  Colonel  Stevens 
built  a  homestead  on  the  site  of  the  present  Castle.  Here 
he  lived  every  summer  until  1814,  when  this  became  his 
residence  the  year  round.  He  cultivated  his  grounds  with 
keen  and  intelligent  interest,  planting  many  fruit  trees  new 
to  the  region.  His  library  was  one  of  the  best  in  America 
for  its  day.  Here  philosophy  and  religion,  history  and  biog- 
raphy, travels  and  poetry,  were  not  the  mere  ornaments  of 
handsome  shelves,  but  well-thumbed  tomes,  furnishing  and 
refreshing  a  brain  of  uncommon  activity.  Then,  as  now,  the 
windows  of  the  Stevens  homestead  commanded  a  full  view 
of  the  city  erf  New  York,  distant  no  more  than  a  mile. 
Colonel  Stevens  as  early  as  1824  proposed  that  his  estate 
should  become  a  park  for  the  metropolis,  for  which  its  easy 
accessibility  and  long  shore-line  fitted  it  admirably.  But  his 
suggestion  met  with  no  response.  In  1911,  however,  the 
Palisades  Park,  to  stretch  for  fifty  miles  along  the  Hudson 
River,  was  planned  for  Greater  New  York,  one  of  its  com- 
missioners being  Edwin  A.  Stevens  II.,  a  grandson  of 
Colonel  Stevens. 

So  long  as  Colonel  Stevens  maintained  a  home  at  7 
Broadway,  near  the  Battery,  his  sole  means  of  reaching 
Hoboken  was  a  boat  impelled  by  oars  or  a  sail.  In  fine 
weather  nothing  could  be  pleasanter.  In  a  fog  or  a  storm, 
the  trip  was  perilous  and  uncomfortable.  No  wonder,  then, 
that  he  listened  with  both  ears  to  reports  that  John  Fitch 
was  running  a  steamboat  on  the  Delaware.  Why  could  not 
the  same  feat  be  accomplished  on  the  Hudson?  Steam 
engines  for  years  had  driven  the  huge  pumps  of  Cornish 
mines ;  they  were  now  entering  upon  the  less  arduous  task 
of  propelling  canal  barges  and  excursion  boats.  One 
memorable  morning  in  1787,  about  a  year  before  Syming- 
ton's success  on  the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal,  Colonel  Stevens 
saw  Fitch's  little  craft  as  she  sped  between  Burlington  and 


8  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Trenton,  New  Jersey.  There  and  then  he  was  convinced 
that  steam  could  far  outvie  sails  or  the  tense  muscles  of 
horses  or  men.  Fitch,  poor  man,  had  fallen  into  a  cardinal 
error  of  design.  His  mechanism  directly  imitated  manual 
toil, — his  oars  swept  the  water  much  as  if  pushed  by  an  oars- 
man's thews,  and  this  while  rotary  paddle-wheels  had  pro- 
pelled his  first  models.  In  1788  these  wheels  appeared  in 
Symington's  steamer  on.  the  Clyde.  Fitch's  piston  was  one 
foot  in  diameter,  with  a  stroke  of  three  feet.  Each  turn  of 
his  axle-tree  moved  its  oars  through  five  and  a  half  feet.  As 
six  oars  came  out  of  the  water,  the  other  six  entered  the 
water,  each  having  a  stroke  like  that  of  a  canoe-paddle. 
When  all  went  well,  six  miles  an  hour  was  the  pace  at- 
tained. But  the  machinery  was  so  roughly  made,  so  badly 
fitted  together,  that  interruptions  were  frequent  and  repairs 
costly,  so  that  Fitch's  backers  became  disheartened,  and  his 
enterprise  was  abandoned.  He  stands  a  pathetic  type  of  the 
inventor  with  much  initiative  and  no  staying  power.  But 
while  his  steamboat  was  in  itself  a  failure,  it  had  given 
Colonel  Stevens  a  golden  impulse.  With  characteristic 
promptitude  he  petitioned  the  Legislature  of  New  Jersey 
to  place  a  steam  engine  on  board  a  vessel  by  way  of  ex- 
periment. He  then  informed  himself  as  to  the  difficulties 
which  had  thwarted  Fitch,  that  these  might  be  avoided.  His 
plans,  carefully  drawn,  were  handed  to  the  official  commis- 
sioners and  a  patent  was  granted  to  him  on  September  6, 
1791.  To  grant  a  patent  required  a  Patent  Office,  and  this 
was  founded  at  the  instance  of  Colonel  Stevens  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  duly  guarding  his  rights  in  this  invention. 
At  first  he  used  a  horizontal  wheel.  This  he  soon  abandoned 
for  elliptical  paddles,  which  were  tested  as  well  as  their 
faulty  machinery  would  allow.  His  steam  engine  was 
copied  from  a  design  of  James  Watt,  by  an  engine-builder 
who  had  been  long  in  the  service  of  Boulton  &  Watt. 
Colonel  Stevens  wished  to  avoid  the  alternating  stroke  of 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS     9 

this  model,  so  he  devised  a  rotary  engine,  which  he  thus 
describes : 


"  A  cylinder  of  brass,  about  eight  inches  in  diameter,  and 
four  inches  long,  was  placed  horizontally  on  the  bottom  of 
the  boat.  By  the  alternate  pressure  of  the  steam  on  two 
sliding  wings,  an  axis  passing  through  the  center  was  made 
to  revolve.  On  one  end  of  this  axis,  which  passed  through 
the  stern  of  the  boat,  wings  like  those  on  the  arms  of  a  wind- 
mill were  fixed,  adjusted  to  the  angle  most  advantageous  for 
operating  on  the  water  [as  a  propeller].  This  constituted 
the  whole  of  the  machinery.  Working  with  the  elasticity  of 
steam  merely,  no  condenser,  no  air-pump,  was  necessary. 
And  as  there  were  no  valves,  no  apparatus  was  required  to 
open  and  shut  valves.  This  simple  little  engine  was,  in  the 
summer  of  1802,  placed  on  board  a  flat-bottomed  boat  I  had 
built  for  the  purpose.  This  boat  was  about  twenty-five  feet 
long,  and  five  or  six  feet  wide.  She  occasionally  kept  go- 
ing until  cold  weather  stopped  us.  When  the  engine  was 
in  the  best  order,  her  velocity  was  about  four  miles  an  hour. 
I  found  it,  however,  impracticable  on  so  contracted  a  scale  to 
preserve  due  tightness  in  the  packing  of  the  wings  in  the 
cylinder  for  any  length  of  time.  This  determined  me  to 
resort  again  to  the  reciprocating  engine.  But  the  unsuc- 
cessful experiment  in  which  I  had  been  engaged  with  Chan- 
cellor Livingston  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  taught  me  the  in- 
disputable necessity  of  guarding  against  the  injurious  ef- 
fects of  partial  pressure,  and,  accordingly,  I  constructed  an 
engine,  although  differing  much  from  those  described  in  my 
patents,  yet  so  modified  as  to  embrace  completely  the  prin- 
ciple stated  therein.  During  the  winter  this  small  engine 
was  set  up  in  a  shop  I  then  occupied  at  the  Manhattan 
Works,  and  continued  occasionally  in  operation  until  spring, 
when  it  was  placed  aboard  the  above-mentioned  boat,  and 
by  means  of  bevel  cogged  wheels  it  worked  the  axis  and 
wheels  above  described,  and  gave  the  boat  somewhat  more 
velocity  than  the  rotary  engine.  But  after  having  gone 
some  time  in  crossing  the  river,  with  my  son  on  board,  the 
boiler,  which  was  constructed  of  small  tubes  inserted  at 
each  end  into  metal  heads,  gave  way,  so  as  to  be  incapable 
of  repair. 


10  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

In  1804,  Colonel  Stevens  planned  a  ferryboat  to  be  driven 
by  a  steam  engine  of  modified  design.  To  bore  its  two  cylin- 
ders, each  sixteen  inches  in  diameter,  he  erected  a  boring 
machine  in  Hoboken.  Both  the  furnace  and  the  boiler  of 
this  boat  proved  faulty,  and  she  was  dismantled.  Her  cylin- 
ders afterward  did  duty  on  the  Phoenix,  to  be  presently 
mentioned. 

Colonel  Stevens,  in  successful  practice,  originated  many 
distinctive  features  for  steamboats.  He  thus  set  them  forth : 

1.  The  cylinder,  condenser,  and  air-pump  are  all  firmly 
bedded  upon  a  single  plate  of  cast-iron,  and  the  power  of 
the  engine  exerted  without  causing  strain  to  any  part  of 
the  boat. 

2.  The  air-pump  has  a  double  stroke,  and  its  piston  pumps 
out  the  injection  water  from  the  bottom  of  the  condenser 
when  the  piston  rises,  and  by  exhaustion  removes  the  air 
from  the  top  of  the  water  as  the  piston  descends. 

3.  A  new  parallel  motion  for  preserving  the  vertical  posi- 
tion of  the  piston  rod  of  the  air-pump. 

4.  A  new  method  of  fixing  the  valve-seats  with  firmness 
and  accuracy. 

5.  Valves  with  perforated  stems  passing  through  from 
the    upper    seat    downwards,    and    from    the    lower    seat 
upwards. 

6.  The  levers  for  opening  and  shutting  the  valves  are 
worked  by  a  rotary  motion,  instead  of  the  reciprocating  mo- 
tion of  the  common  plug  frame,  the  working  gear  of  which 
is  liable  to  get  out  of  order. 

7.  The  guide-posts  are  triangular,  greatly  increasing  their 
strength  and  firmness. 

8.  By  means  of  a  cylinder  placed  above,  between  the  two 
main  cylinders  of  which  the  boiler  is  built,   a  supply   of 
water  is  furnished  to  the  boiler  whenever  it  is  necessary  to 
stop  the  engine.     This  contrivance,  if  the  stop  is  not  very 
long,"  prevents  the  safety  valve  from  rising  and  making  a 
loud  noise,  and  thus  avoids  loss  of  steam  and  heat ;  while 
the  engine  is  going  it  furnishes  more  steam  room  to  the 
boiler. 

"  It  is  very  true,"  he  says,  "  that  I  now  make  use  of  water- 


I 
° 


•»;*• 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS     11 

wheels  on  each  side  of  the  boat.  It  is  surely  very  far  from 
my  intention  to  attempt  to  invalidate  Mr.  Fulton's  claim  to 
water-wheels  thus  applied.  It  is  an  unquestionable  fact  that 
he  was  the  first  person  who,  for  any  practical  useful  pur- 
pose, applied  water-wheels  on  each  side  of  a  steamboat. 

"  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  mention  that  in  1807,  when  the 
North  River  steamboat  [Fulton's  Clcrmont]  made  her  first 
appearance  on  the  waters  of  the  Hudson,  I  constructed  an 
engine  and  boat  on  a  very  small  scale,  namely  fifteen  feet 
long,  and  four-and-a-half  feet  wide.  To  this  boat,  consider- 
ing her  size,  I  gave  the  astonishing  velocity  at  times  of  not 
less  than  six  miles  an  hour.  To  be  sure,  she  had  water- 
wheels  on  each  side.  That  her  extraordinary  velocity  was 
not  owing  to  this  circumstance  is  evident  from  the  fact  of 
her  going,  notwithstanding  every  disadvantage,  much  faster 
than  the  North  River  steamboat.  .  .  ." 

Concurrently  with  this  small  vessel  Colonel  Stevens  built 
the  Phoenix,  which,  but  for  the  monopoly  held  by  Livingston 
and  Fulton,  would  have  plied  on  the  Hudson  River.  The 
rivalry  between  the  Phoenix  and  Fulton's  Clermont  was 
close.  To  the  credit  of  the  Phoenix  stands  the  fact  that  her 
engines  were  built  in  America,  whereas  those  of  the  Cler- 
mont were  imported  from  England.  The  Phoenix  was 
excluded  from  New  York,  but  the  port  of  Philadelphia  was 
open  to  her.  Accordingly,  by  sea,  to  Philadelphia  Robert 
L.  Stevens  took  her,  embarking  one  afternoon  in  June, 
1808.  A  fierce  storm  was  encountered.  A  schooner  in  her 
company  was  blown  out  to  sea,  and  was  not  heard  from  for 
nearly  a  fortnight,  but  the  Phoenix  made  a  safe  harbor  at 
Barnegat,  whence,  when  the  storm  abated,  she  proceeded 
to  Philadelphia,  and  plied  many  years  between  that  city 
and  Trenton.  Mr.  Stevens  thus  earned  the  honor  of  being 
the  first  to  brave  the  ocean  in  a  craft  propelled  by  steam. 

The  next  steamer  built  by  John  Stevens  was  the  Juliana, 
a  ferryboat,  launched  in  1811.  She  was  an  undecked  open 
boat,  62  feet  in  length  and  12  in  breadth,  drawing  from  2^2 
to  3  feet  of  water.  Her  engines  were  of  the  model  patented 


12  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

by  her  builder,  having  a  cylinder  of  14  inches  diameter  and 
30  inches  stroke.  Her  boilers  and  flues  were  of  copper. 
Her  steam  was  used  expansively,  being  cut  off  in  the  main 
valves  as  in  modern  practice.  Her  furnace  and  flue  were 
suspended  on  a  frame-work  of  cast-iron,  conducing  to  safety 
from  fire,  and  superseding  much  heavy  brickwork.  The 
Juliana  rose  to  a  speed  of  seven  miles  an  hour.  Robert  Ful- 
ton, having  exclusive  rights  in  the  Jersey  City  ferry,  would 
not  allow  the  Juliana  to  run  between  New  York  and  Ho- 
boken,  so  she  was  placed  on  the  route  betwixt  Middletown 
and  Hartford,  on  the  Connecticut  River,  being  the  first 
steamer  to  navigate  Long  Island  Sound,  as  her  cousin,  the 
Phoenix,  had  been  the  first,  in  1808,  to  navigate  the  ocean 
from  Sandy  Hook  to  the  mouth  of  the  Delaware  River. 

John  Stevens,  taking  a  comprehensive  survey  of  steam 
practice,  clearly  saw  that  great  economy  lay  in  using  high 
pressures,  especially  with  expansion  gear.  But  an  obstacle 
which  had  confronted  James  Watt  remained  in  the  path  of 
his  American  successor.  Workmanship  in  those  days  was 
inadequate  to  the  task  of  tightly  riveting  a  large  boiler  to 
resist  high  pressure.  A  means  of  avoiding  this  difficulty 
was  to  revive  and  improve  an  old  invention, — a  boiler 
which,  instead  of  being  formed  of  one  huge  cylinder,  was 
built  of  many  long  narrow  cylinders,  or  mere  tubes,  each  of 
which  could  be  produced  perfectly  tight,  while  so  thin  as  to 
have  its  contained  water  quickly  heated  by  an  impinging 
flame.  The  first  boiler  of  this  kind  on  record  was  devised 
in  1766,  by  William  Blakey,  an  Englishman.  He  connected 
together  several  water-tubes  in  a  furnace,  alternately  in- 
clined at  opposite  angles,  and  united  at  their  contiguous 
ends  by  smaller  pipes.  This  design  was  improved  by 
James  Rumsey,  an  American  pioneer  in  steamboating.  He 
patented,  in  1788,  several  forms  of  this  boiler.  One  had  a 
firebox  with  flat  water-sides  and  top,  across  which  were 
horizontal  water-tubes  connected  with  the  water-spaces. 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS     13 

Another  was  a  coiled  tube  within  a  cylindrical  firebox,  con- 
nected at  its  two  ends  with  the  annular  surrounding  water- 
space.  This  was  the  first  "  coil  boiler."  A  third  type  was 
the  vertical  tubular  boiler,  as  built  to-day.  John  Stevens' 
design  was  patented  in  Great  Britain  in  1805,  by  his  son, 
John  Cox  Stevens,  who  said: 

"  The  principle  of  this  invention  consists  in  forming  a 
boiler  by  combining  a  number  of  small  vessels,  or  tubes,  in- 
stead of  using  a  single  large  one.  .  .  .  Suppose  a  plate  of 
brass  one  foot  square,  in  which  a  number  of  holes  are  per- 
forated, into  each  of  which  holes  is  fixed  one  end  of  a 
copper  tube,  of  about  one  inch  in  diameter  and  two  feet  in 
length ;  the  other  ends  of  these  tubes  being  inserted  in  like 
manner  in  a  similar  piece  of  brass.  In  order  to  insure  tight- 
ness, these  tubes  are  to  be  cast  in  the  plates ;  these  plates  are 
to  be  inclosed  at  each  end  of  the  pipes,  and  the  cast-iron 
cap  at  each  end ;  the  caps  at  each  end  are  to  be  fastened  by 
screw-bolts  passing  through  them  into  the  plates.  The 
water  supply  is  to  be  injected  by  a  forcing  pump  into 
the  cap  at  one  end,  and  through  a  tube  inserted  into 
the  cap  at  the  other  end  the  steam  is  to  be  conveyed 
to  the  steam  cylinder  of  the  engine.  The  whole  is  then  to 
be  inclosed  in  brickwork  or  masonry  in  the  usual  manner, 
placed  either  horizontally  or  perpendicularly  at  option." 

In  adopting  and  improving  the  water-tube  boiler,  Mr. 
Stevens  showed  his  wonted  sagacity.  Since  his  day  its 
advantages  have  been  fully  realized  in  improved  designs. 
Let  us  remark  how  it  excels  a  boiler  of  the  fire-tube  model : 
First  of  all,  the  flames  rush  across  its  tubes,  so  that  they 
are  much  more  thoroughly  and  quickly  heated  than  if  the 
fire  merely  glided  along  their  length.  A  fire-tube  ac- 
cumulates dust,  ashes,  and  soot  on  its  inside  surface,  with 
risk  of  utter  choking.  These  deposits  attach  themselves, 
and  in  much  less  quantity,  to  the  outside  of  a  water-tube, 
whence  they  are  easily  removed.  All  the  joints  of  a  water- 
tube  boiler  may  be  placed  elsewhere  than  in  the  hottest  parts 


14  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

of  the  fire,  exposing  the  structure  as  a  whole  to  much  less 
strain  than  befalls  a  fire-tube  boiler.  A  water-tube  boiler 
has  also  a  much  larger  draft  area  than  its  rival.  The  sole 
reason  why  a  fire-tube  boiler  retains  its  hold  of  the  market 
is  that  it  is  simpler  and  cheaper  to  manufacture  than  its 
vastly  more  efficient  competitor. 

As  remarkable  as  this  adoption  and  improvement  of  the 
sectional  boiler,  was  John  Stevens'  modification  of  the  screw 
propeller.  He  thus  describes  it  in  addressing  Robert  Hare, 
Junior,  of  Philadelphia,  on  November  16,  1805 : 

".  .  .  To  the  extremity  of  an  axis  passing  nearly  in  a 
horizontal  direction  through  the  stem  of  the  boat,  are  fixed 
a  number  of  arms  with  wings  like  those  of  a  windmill  or 
smoke  jack.  These  arms  may  be  readily  adjusted,  so  that 
the  most  advantageous  obliquity  of  their  angle  may  be  at- 
tained after  a  few  trials.  The  principle  of  an  oblique  stroke 
is  the  same  as  in  the  scull — but  the  continuity  of  movement 
in  the  wings  gives  them  greatly  the  advantage  over  the 
alternation  in  the  sculls,  both  in  the  loss  of  time  and  in  the 
resistance  of  the  fluid  to  change  of  motion.  Besides  that, 
this  change  of  motion  must  give  to  the  boat  a  wriggling 
movement,  with  a  tendency  to  lift  and  lower,  by  turns,  the 
stern  of  the  boat.  The  sculls  would  also  be  liable  to  be 
affected  by  the  swells  in  rough  water,  and,  like  the  paddles 
I  had  thought  of  using,  would  be  an  awkward  appendage 
to  the  stern  of  a  boat.  The  consideration  which  determined 
me,  when  I  saw  you  last,  to  try  the  paddles  was  merely 
to  avoid  the  necessity  of  giving  the  boat  a  draught  of  water 
too  great  for  passing  the  overslough  near  Albany,  but  this 
objection  to  the  use  of  wheels  I  expect  to  obviate  by  an 
increase  in  their  number  and  a  consequent  diminution  of 
their  diameter.  Indeed,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  have  at 
least  two  revolving  in  opposite  directions  to  prevent  the 
tendency  to  rotation  which  a  single  wheel  gives  to  a  boat. 

"  Since  you  were  here  I  have  made  a  fair  experiment  on 
the  wheel  compared  with  oars.  Two  men  were  placed  at 
two  cranks  by  which  a  wheel  in  the  stern  of  the  boat  was 
turned;  with  a  stopwatch  the  time  of  passing  over  a  given 
distance  was  precisely  ascertained.  After  making  a  sufft- 


THE  TWIN-SCREW  PROPELLER  OF  1804 
[From  a  photograph  of  the  rebuilt  boat  containing  the  original  machinery.] 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS    15 

cient  number  of  trials  the  wheel  was  taken  off  and  the 
same  men  were  furnished  with  oars.  The  result  of  re- 
peated trials  was  a  few  seconds  in  favor  of  the  wheel.  It 
is  unnecessary  to  observe  that  the  wheel  must  have  worked 
to  much  disadvantage.  The  proper  angle  of  obliquity  was 
not  attended  to,  besides  the  wings  were  made  with  a  flat 
surface,  whereas  a  certain  curve  was  necessary.  And  in 
order  to  give  a  due  immersion  to  the  wheel,  its  axis  was  in- 
clined 30  to  40  degrees  below  the  horizontal  line.  The 
machinery,  too,  was  put  up  in  a  very  coarse  manner.  One 
important  consideration  in  favor  of  these  wheels  is  the  facil- 
ity with  which  they  can  be  defended  from  all  external  in- 
jury by  placing  them  in  the  stern.  My  foreman  promises 
to  have  the  engines  going  in  the  boat  in  about  two  weeks 
from  this  time."  * 

Colonel  Stevens  for  six  years,  ending  with  1806,  sought 
to  establish  steam  navigation  by  the  screw  propeller,  en- 
deavoring to  introduce  (i)  the  short  four-bladed  screw, 
(2)  steam  at  high  pressure,  (3)  multitubular  boilers,  (4) 
quick-moving  engines  directly  connected  to  propeller  shafts, 
(5)  twin  screws. 

*  Francis  B.  Stevens,  grand-nephew  of  Colonel  John  Stevens,  in 
the  Stevens  Indicator,  April,  1893,  said: 

"Colonel  Stevens  considered  himself  the  inventor  of  the  screw 
propeller.  He  was  mistaken.  It  was  proposed  by  the  mathemati- 
cian, Daniel  Bernouilli,  in  1752.  It  is  described  by  David  Bushnell 
in  a  letter  to  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  1787,  giving  an  account  of  his 
submarine  boat,  in  which  a  screw  propeller,  worked  by  hand,  was 
used.  The  same  idea  was  afterward  suggested  by  Franklin,  Watt, 
Paucton,  and  others.  Prior  to  1802  the  screw  propeller  was  twice 
distinctly  patented  in  England:  first,  by  William  Lyttleton,  in  1794; 
second,  by  Edward  Shorter,  in  1800." 

John  Bourne,  in  his  "Treatise  on  the  Screw  Propeller,"  London, 
1867,  mentions  a  prior  patent,  that  of  Joseph  Bramah,  issued  May  9, 
1785.  His  propeller  was  "a  wheel  with  inclined  fans  or  wings,  sim- 
ilar to  the  fly  of  a  smokejack,  or  the  vertical  sails  of  a  windmill. 
This  wheel  was  to  be  fixed  on  the  spindle  of  a  rotary  engine,  and 
might  be  wholly  under  water,  where  it  could  be  turned  round  either 
way,  causing  a  ship  to  be  forced  forward  or  backward,  as  the  incli- 
nation of  the  fans  or  wings  might  determine." 


16  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Forty  years  had  to  elapse  before  these  elements  of  suc- 
cess were  adopted  in  ocean  navigation.  At  the  time  of 
Colonel  Stevens'  experiments  there  were  no  competent 
workmen  in  America  to  construct  the  boilers  and  engines 
he  planned.  He  had,  therefore,  to  fall  back  upon  the 
paddle-wheel  as  a  propeller,  with  its  slow-moving  engine, 
whose  boilers  carried  steam  at  only  two  or  three  pounds 
above  atmospheric  pressure. 

Speed  soon  became  a  prime  consideration  in  steamboat- 
ing.  At  first  Colonel  John  Stevens  bestowed  his  attention 
wholly  upon  his  motive  power  and  machinery,  giving  little 
heed  to  the  hulls  of  his  vessels.  In  improving  their  lines, 
his  son  and  associate,  Robert,  effected  a  notable  advance. 
At  first  his  father's  steamers  were  little  else  than  boxes 
with  pointed  ends.  In  the  New  Philadelphia,  Robert 
Stevens  introduced  a  false  bow,  long  and  sharp,  which 
parted  the  water  with  a  new  facility.  At  once  this  vessel 
bounded  forward  at  thirteen  and  a  half  miles  an  hour,  a 
marvelous  speed  for  that  period,  and  even  to-day  a  goodly 
pace.  When  the  designer  asked  his  shipbuilders,  Brown  & 
Bell,  to  construct  this  bow,  they  declined  from  fear  of 
public  ridicule.  Mr.  Bell  said :  "  That  bow  will  be  called 
'  Bell's  nose,'  and  I  will  be  a  general  laughing-stock."  So 
Robert  Stevens  had  to  build  the  bow  himself,  with  any- 
thing but  laughter  at  the  result.  The  New  Philadelphia 
inaugurated  a  day  line  between  Albany  and  New  York. 
No  predecessor  of  hers  had  ever  run  fast  enough  to  com- 
plete a  trip  betwixt  dawn  and  dusk.  With  her,  too,  began 
models  which,  in  clipper  sailers  and  steamers,  won  new 
records  in  speed.  Of  equal  importance  with  the  steam- 
boats plying  between  the  metropolis  and  the  capital  of  New 
York,  were  the  steam  ferries  which  joined  New  York  City 
with  the  shores  of  New  Jersey  and  Long  Island.  Until 
1810  only  comfortless  rowboats  or  pirogues  offered  a 
passage  across  the  North  and  East  Rivers.  First  as  an  im- 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS     17 

provement  came  twin  boats,  with  a  central  wheel  turned, 
treadmill  fashion,  by  horses.  These  horses  were  supplanted 
by  steam,  first  by  Fulton  in  a  ferry  to  Jersey  City,  in  1812. 
Then  came  single  boats  with  sidewheels,  of  which  the  first 
was  the  Hoboken,  built  in  1822  by  Robert  L.  Stevens.  In 
that  year  he  introduced  at  his  docks  string  piles  which  di- 
rected a  boat  as  she  entered  her  pier.  One  stormy  night, 
Mr.  Stevens'  attention  was  called  to  a  pilot  as  he  stood  at 
his  wheel,  wholly  unprotected  from  beating  rain.  Mr. 
Stevens  at  once  planned  and  built  shelters  for  his  pilots,  the 
first  to  be  provided  for  them. 

A  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Stevens  family  was  the  mo- 
nopoly granted  by  the  State  of  New  York  to  Robert  Ful- 
ton and  his  partners,  bestowing  the  exclusive  right  to  steam- 
boat service  on  the  waters  of  New  York.  After  much 
preliminary  skirmishing,  this  monopoly  was  attacked  in 
February,  1824,  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
by  Daniel  Webster,  in  a  masterly  argument.  Mr.  Oakley, 
and  Mr.  Emmett,  who  had  been  a  personal  friend  of  Fulton, 
appeared  in  defense.  Chief  Justice  John  Marshall  rendered 
a  decision  adverse  to  the  monopoly,  holding  that  the  power 
vested  in  Congress,  to  regulate  commerce,  included  power 
to  regulate  navigation.  Said  he :  "  The  power  to  regulate 
commerce  does  not  look  to  the  principle  by  which  boats  are 
moved.  That  power  is  left  to  individual  discretion.  .  .  . 
The  act  demonstrates  the  opinion  that  steamboats  may  be 
enrolled  and  licensed  in  common  with  vessels  having  sails. 
They  are,  of  course,  entitled  to  the  same  privileges,  and 
can  no  more  be  restrained  from  navigating  waters  and  en- 
tering ports,  which  are  free  to  such  vessels,  than  if  they 
were  wafted  on  their  voyage  by  the  winds  instead  of  being 
propelled  by  the  agency  of  fire."  Thus  ended  a  monopoly 
which,  during  seventeen  years,  held  back  the  progress  of 
steam  navigation  in  America,  clearly  proving  the  impolicy 
of  rewarding  enterprise  by  an  exclusive  privilege. 


i8  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

His  success  with  the  Phoenix  and  her  sister  craft  showed 
Colonel  Stevens  how  mighty  a  stride  steam  could  effect  on 
waterways.  He  had  long  been  convinced  that  a  like  gain 
could  be  reaped  by  steam  as  a  motive  power  for  travel  on 
land.  In  1810  the  Legislature  of  New  York  appointed 
commissioners  to  examine  the  routes  proposed  for  the  Erie 
Canal,  and  to  report  upon  the  feasibility  of  that  project. 
When  Colonel  Stevens  read  their  report,  which  discussed 
a  continuous  inclined  plane  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  Hudson 
River,  to  be  fed  by  the  waters  of  the  lake,  he  urgently 
pressed  upon  the  commissioners,  as  preferable  in  economy, 
speed,  and  rapidity  of  construction,  a  system  of  steam  rail- 
ways. In  1812  he  published  his  argument  as  a  pamphlet, 
adding  the  objections  of  the  commissioners,  and  his  re- 
joinders. He  said : 

"  So  many  and  so  important  are  the  advantages  which 
these  States  would  derive  from  the  general  adoption  of  the 
proposed  railways,  that  they  ought,  in  my  humble  opinion, 
to  become  an  object  of  primary  attention  to  the  national 
government.  The  insignificant  sum  of  $2,000  to  $3,000 
would  be  adequate  to  give  the  project  a  fair  trial.  On  the 
success  of  this  experiment  a  plan  should  be  digested,  a  gen- 
eral system  of  internal  communication  and  conveyance  be 
adopted,  and  the  necessary  surveys  be  made  for  the  ex- 
tension of  these  ways  in  all  directions,  so  as  to  embrace  and 
unite  every  section  of  this  extensive  empire.  It  might  then, 
indeed,  be  said  that  these  States  would  then  constitute  one 
family,  intimately  connected  and  held  together  in  bonds 
of  indissoluble  union. 

".  .  .  To  the  rapidity  of  the  motion  of  a  steam  carriage 
on  these  railways,  no  definite  limit  can  be  set.  The  flying 
proas  of  the  islands  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  are  said  at  times 
to  sail  more  than  twenty  miles  an  hour ;  but  as  the  resistance 
of  water  to  the  progress  of  a  vessel  increases  as  the  square 
of  its  velocity,  it  is  obvious  that  the  power  required  to  propel 
her  must  also  be  increased  in  the  same  ratio.  Not  so  with 
a  steam  carriage;  as  it  moves  in  a  fluid  eight  hundred  times 
rarer  than  water,  the  resistance  is  proportionately  dimin- 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS     19 

ished.  Indeed,  the  principal  resistance  arises  from  friction, 
which  does  not  even  increase  in  a  direct  ratio  with  the 
velocity  of  the  carriage.  If,  then,  a  proa  can  be  driven 
by  the  wind  (the  propulsive  power  of  which  is  constantly 
diminishing  as  the  velocity  of  the  proa  increases),  through 
so  dense  a  fluid  as  water,  at  twenty  miles  an  hour,  I  can  see 
nothing  to  hinder  a  steam  carriage  from  moving  on  these 
ways  at  one  hundred  miles  an  hour.  .  .  .  This  astonishing 
velocity  is  considered  here  as  merely  possible.  It  is  prob- 
able that  it  may  not,  in  practice,  be  convenient  to  exceed 
twenty  or  thirty  miles  an  hour.  Actual  experience,  how- 
ever, can  alone  determine  this  matter,  and  I  should  not  be 
surprised  at  seeing  steam  carriages  propelled  at  forty  to 
fifty  miles  an  hour." 

The  Erie  Canal  was  built,  notwithstanding  the  arguments 
of  influential  opponents  led  by  Colonel  Stevens.  Year  by 
year  he  closely  followed  the  developments  in  railroad  loco- 
motion in  England,  resolved  that  he  should  have  a  leading 
part  in  promoting  like  projects  at  home.  For  this  a  door 
stood  open  before  him.  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  in 
an  airline  but  ninety  miles  apart,  even  at  that  early  day 
transacted  a  huge  business  with  one  another.  Added  to 
this  was  the  trade  of  intervening  towns  and  villages,  steadily 
growing  in  population  and  wealth.  The  Stevens  family, 
as  men  of  enterprise  and  capital,  had  developed  the  traffic 
on  this  highway  until  almost  the  whole  rested  in  their  hands. 
As  far  back  as  1795  Colonel  Stevens  had  designed  a  steam 
locomotive,  which  he  had  hoped  to  patent  during  the  ad- 
ministration of  President  Washington.  His  great  difficulty 
was  to  provide  a  track  strong  enough  to  support  the  heavy 
low-pressure  engine  of  that  day.  In  1817  he  obtained  a 
charter  from  the  State  of  New  Jersey  "  to  build  a  railroad 
from  the  river  Delaware,  near  Trenton,  to  the  river  Raritan, 
near  New  Brunswick."  No  action  followed  the  granting 
of  his  charter,  as  its  project  was  deemed  visionary.  But 
Colonel  Stevens  never  for  a  moment  relaxed  his  labors  on 
behalf  of  steam  railroads.  In  1823,  with  Stephen  Girard 


20  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

and  Horace  Binney  as  his  associates,  he  projected  a  rail- 
road from  Philadelphia  to  Harrisburg  and  Pittsburgh, 
which  resulted  in  the  incorporation  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  Company,  twenty-three  years  before  the  present 
corporation  was  chartered.  In  1826  Colonel  Stevens  built 
at  his  own  cost  the  first  steam  locomotive  that  ran  on  rails  in 
America.  This  engine  was  furnished  with  a  sectional  boiler 
of  high  efficiency,  and  coursed  upon  a  circular  track  laid 
within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  present  Stevens  Institute. 
This  was  three  years  before  Horatio  Allen  ran  the 
"  Stourbridge  Lion "  at  Honesdale,  Pennsylvania,  and 
nearly  four  years  before  Stephenson  won  his  prize  with  the 
"  Rocket "  at  Rainhill  in  England. 

About  1829,  Colonel  Stevens  conceived  a  bold  project, 
which,  duly  modified,  forty  years  afterward  was  developed 
as  the  elevated  railroad  system  of  New  York.  He  sketched 
a  scheme  for  a  railway  starting  from  the  Battery,  and  pro- 
ceeding along  Greenwich  or  Washington  Street,  to  a  suit- 
able spot  opposite  Castle  Point,  Hoboken,  and  from  an 
elevated  structure  there  to  cross  the  Hudson  River  upon  a 
high  bridge  made  chiefly  of  Manila  hemp,  supported  by 
several  piers.  The  track  was  to  be  "  supported  on  pillars 
of  stone,  iron,  or  wood,  placed  near  the  curb  stones,  and 
elevated  about  ten  or  twelve  feet  above  the  pavement/' 
After  crossing  the  river,  the  railway  was  to  proceed  over 
Bergen  Hill  to  the  Little  Falls  of  the  Passaic  River.  The 
real  objective  point  was  Philadelphia,  and  thence  to  Wash- 
ington. Stoves  were  to  be  erected  on  the  bridge,  and  a 
supply  of  pure  water  was  to  cross  with  it — brought  from 
Little  Falls. 

It  was  not  in  this  bold  project,  but  in  ordinary  railroad- 
ing, that  Colonel  Stevens  was  to  engage.  Less  ambitious 
than  the  proposed  line  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburgh  was 
a  scheme  requiring  comparatively  small  outlay,  to  provide 
a  short  railroad  which  should  complete  a  steam  route  be- 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS    21 

tween  New  York  and  Philadelphia.     These  cities  were  at 
that  time  joined  by  the  Union  Line  in  three  links : — 

Steamboat  route  from  Philadelphia  to  Trenton. .  36  miles 
Turnpike  for  stage  and  wagons,  Trenton  to  New 

Brunswick    25 

Steamboat  route,  New  Brunswick  to  New  York.  40      " 


101  miles 

To  build  a  railroad  between  Trenton  and  New  Bruns- 
wick, twenty-five  miles,  and  capture  the  traffic  carried  by 
horse-drawn  vehicles,  was  a  most  inviting  enterprise  for 
Colonel  Stevens,  his  family,  and  his  wealthy  associates. 
In  1830,  accordingly,  at  their  instance,  the  Camden  &  Am- 
boy  Railroad  Company  was  incorporated.  Robert  L. 
Stevens  was  appointed  its  president;  his  brother,  Edwin 
Augustus,  was  chosen  its  treasurer  and  general  manager. 
As  a  first  step  toward  building  the  line,  Robert  L.  Stevens 
posted  to  England,  where,  since  1825,  the  railway  be- 
tween Stockton  and  Darlington  had  been  successfully 
operated  with  locomotives  designed  by  the  Stephensons. 
Before  leaving  home  he  resolved  to  adopt  an  iron  rail  as 
better  than  a  wooden  rail,  or  than  the  stone  stringer  thinly 
plated  with  iron,  which  his  Company  had  laid  by  way  of 
experiment.  There  was  then  no  mill  in  America  to  roll 
T-rails,  and  as  both  iron  and  labor  were  scarce  and  dear 
in  the  United  States,  Mr.  Stevens  wished  to  lay  a  rail 
which  would  need  no  chair  to  hold  it  in  place.  During  his 
voyage  across  the  Atlantic  he  whittled  bits  of  wood  into 
varied  rail  contours,  at  last  carving  a  form  in  which  a  broad 
and  firm  base  was  added  to  a  T-rail,  so  as  to  give  it  a  con- 
tinuous foot,  or  flange,  dispensing  with  chairs.  In  this  he 
carried  forward  by  an  important  step  the  advantages  pre- 
sented in  the  rail  suggested  by  Thomas  Tredgold  in  1825, 
which  had  a  base  comparatively  narrow. 


22  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

On  landing  in  Liverpool,  he  asked  for  bids  on  five  hun- 
dred tons  of  such  a  rail  as  he  had  whittled,  since  known  by 
his  name  the  world  over.  As  first  designed,  the  base  of  this 
rail  was  wider  at  its  points  of  support  than  elsewhere. 
Afterward  it  was  rolled  throughout  with  a  uniform  breadth 
of  three  inches.  The  first  shipment,  which  reached  Phila- 
delphia on  the  ship  Charlemagne  on  May  18,  1831,  com- 
prised 350  bars,  each  18  feet  long,  weighing  36  pounds  to 
the  yard.  It  was  soon  found  that  heavier  rails  were  less 


B  b 


a  A 


An  enlarged  section  of  an  Edge-rail  to  show  the  disposition  of 
parts  which  gives  greatest  strength.  If  the  rectangle  a  b  d  c  con- 
tains the  same  quantity,  the  strength  of  the  rail  A  B  D  C  is  to  the 
strength  in  the  form  of  the  rectangle  as  i^  is  to  i. 

[From  "A  Practical  Treatise  on  Railroads  and  Carriages."  By  Thomas 
Tredgold,  New  York,  1825.] 


yielding,  so  that  weights  were  increased  forthwith  to  be- 
tween 40  and  42  pounds  to  the  yard.  These  new 
rails  were  16  feet  long,  3^  inches  high,  2%  inches  wide 
at  the  head,  and  3^2  inches  ;wide  at  the  base.  They  were 
rolled  by  Sir  John  Guest  at  Dowlais,  in  Wales,  at  eight 
pounds  sterling  ($38.93)  per  ton. 

Mr.  Stevens  added  to  his  rails  several  auxiliary  devices 
of  importance.  He  designed  the  iron  tongue,  or  toe-piece, 
which  has  become  the  fish-plate,  as  well  as  the  bolts  and  nuts 
which  give  unity  and  rigidity  to  track  construction.  When 
he  called  upon  the  Stephensons  they  showed  him  their 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS     23 

"  Planet,"  introducing  marked  improvements  on  the 
"  Rocket."  Mr.  Stevens  at  once  ordered  a  like  engine  for 
the  Camden  &  Amboy  line.  This  engine,  the  "  John  Bull," 
was  landed  in  August,  1831.  It  weighed  10  tons;  its  boiler 
was  13  feet  long  and  3^  feet  in  diameter.  Its  cylinders 
were  9  inches  by  20;  its  firebox  had  a  surface  of  36  square 
feet;  its  four  driving-wheels  ran  on  a  gauge  of  five  feet. 
Water  and  fuel  were  borne  on  a  rough  four-wheeled  flat 
car;  the  tank  had  been  a  whisky  barrel  in  a  Bordentown 
grocery.  The  boiler  hose  of  leather  had  been  stitched  by 
a  local  shoemaker.  Liberal  supplies  of  pine  generated  a 
steam  pressure  of  thirty  pounds  to  the  square  inch.  The 
first  run  of  this  locomotive  took  place  near  Bordentown  on 
a  track  1,067  ^eet  l°ng>  wrtn  rails  laid  on  stone  blocks. 
Here  a  demonstration  was  given  to  the  assembled  law- 
makers of  New  Jersey,  much  to  their  amazement  and  de- 
light. On  October  9,  1831,  the  line  from  Bordentown  to 
Hightstown,  twelve  miles,  was  opened  for  traffic.  Two 
months  later  the  road  was  completed  to  Amboy,  but  loco- 
motives were  not  used  until  August,  1833,  when  an  adequate 
number  were  ready  for  service. 

The  early  records  of  this  Camden  &  Amboy  line  present 
the  trial  or  adoption  of  many  devices  since  familiar, — the 
first  pilot,  or  cowcatcher,  was  planned  and  placed  by  Mr. 
Stevens  in  1832.  During  that  year  he  began  to  spike  rails 
directly  to  his  cross-ties.  Soon  afterward  he  introduced  the 
bogie-truck,  borrowing  its  vertical  axle  from  a  common 
wagon,  greatly  easing  movement  around  short  curves.  He 
designed  a  vestibuled  car,  such  as,  in  a  developed  model,  is 
now  operated  by  the  Pullman  Company.  He  began  experi- 
ments in  the  chemical  preservation  of  wood,  doubling  the 
life  of  his  ties.  Amusing  are  many  incidents  of  those 
pioneer  times.  During  the  first  months  of  business,  a  man 
on  a  fast  horse  went  ahead  of  the  train  to  clear  its  track 
and  warn  off  trespassers.  One  of  the  Stevens  brothers 


24  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

owned  a  fine  stud,  so  that  a  quick  steed  was  always  ready 
to  make  safe  the  path  for  the  rival  horse  of  iron.  On  one  of 
its  first  trips,  the  "John  Bull  "  came  upon  a  curve  at  undue 
speed.  As  track  builders  had  not  yet  learned  to  raise  the 
outer  rail  at  curves,  the  engine  left  its  line  and  slid  down 
an  embankment  into  an  adjoining  field,  where  half  a  dozen 
farmhands  were  cradling  wheat.  They  fled  instanter,  nor 
did  their  panic  cease  until  they  had  placed  two  hundred 
yards  between  themselves  and  the  pursuing  monster. 

In  America  the  first  business  for  railroads  was  to  carry 
coals,  just  as  with  their  forerunners  in  England  long  before. 
As  far  back  as  1602  wooden  railways  joined  collieries  at 
Newcastle  to  docks  on  the  Tyne.  Nicholas  Wood,  in  his 
"  Practical  Treatise  on  Railroads,"  published  in  1838,  quotes 
from  a  description  in  1676:  "  The  manner  of  carriage  is  by 
laying  rails  of  timber  from  the  colliery  to  the  river,  exactly 
straight  and  parallel.  Bulky  carts  are  made  with  four 
rollers  fitting  these  rails,  whereby  the  carriage  is  so  easy 
that  one  horse  will  draw  four  to  five  chaldrons  of  coals, 
two-and-a-half  times  as  much  as  if  a  load  were  drawn  upon 
a  common  road."  First  of  American  railroads  worth  while 
was  triat  built  at  Mauch  Chunk,  Pennsylvania,  to  carry  an- 
thracite for  the  Lehigh  Coal  &  Navigation  Company.  Its 
length  was  12 24  miles.  Next  came  the  Quincy  Railroad, 
near  Boston,  about  three  miles  in  extent,  completed  in  1826 
for  the  conveyance  of  granite.  The  South  Carolina  Rail- 
road, begun  in  1829,  finished  in  1832,  came  next.  Then 
followed  this  Camden  &  Amboy  Railroad :  its  first  division, 
from  Camden,  opposite  Philadelphia,  to  Bordentown,  was 
34*/2  miles;  its  second  division,  from  Bordentown  to  Am- 
boy, was  26^  miles.  This  line,  a  double  track,  was  laid  at 
a  cost  of  $1,466,376.64.  It  was  profitable  from  its  first  day, 
under  the  control  of  Edwin  A.  Stevens.  His  ability  was 
manifest  early  in  his  career:  at  twenty-five  his  family 
gave  him  charge  of  the  larger  part  of  their  property.  Dur- 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS    25 

ing  the  thirty-five  years  of  his  railroad  administration  he 
allied  himself  with  the  best  engineering  talent  in  America. 
His  own  faculty  in  this  province  made  him  at  once  a  com- 
petent judge  and  a  whole-hearted  cooperator. 

While  still  a  young  man,  with  the  aid  of  his  brother  Rob- 
ert, he  invented  a  cast-iron  plow.  Its  moldboard  was  so 
curved  as  always  to  scour,  and  leave  no  earth  sticking  to 
its  surface.  Ribs  were  cast  on  its  interior,  insuring 
strength  with  lightness.  On  the  bottom  of  the  landside  a 
heel-piece  was  attached :  when  worn  out,  it  could  be  replaced 
by  a  new  one  in  a  few  minutes.  This  plow  for  years  en- 
joyed a  large  sale. 

Some  years  after  its  invention,  Robert  L.  Stevens  per- 
fected his  air-tight  fire-room,  patented  in  April,  1842.  He 
arrived  at  this  fire-room  by  steps  worth  retracing.  In  1827 
he  fitted  the  boilers  of  the  North  America  with  closed  ash- 
pits, into  which  air  for  combustion  was  forced  by  a  fan. 
In  1828,  Ericsson  in  England  installed  a  like  fan  in  the 
Victory,  commanded  by  Sir  John  Ross  in  an  Arctic  cruise. 
The  brothers,  Robert  and  Edwin  Stevens,  varied  thrice  their 
draft  production.  First,  they  sent  a  blast  into  a  closed 
ashpit;  second,  they  exhausted  the  base  of  their  smoke- 
stack by  a  fan;  third,  they  forced  air  into  an  air-tight 
stokehold.  A  nephew  of  the  inventors,  Francis  B.  Stevens, 
has  said  that  when  the  closed  ashpit  was  used,  the  blast 
pressure  would  often  force  the  gases  of  combustion 
through  the  rims  of  the  furnace-doors,  so  as  greatly  to 
distress  the  stokers.  This  suggested  to  Robert  L.  Stevens, 
in  1836,  a  horizontal  screw  ventilator  turning  on  a  vertical 
axis  at  the  base  of  the  smokestack  of  the  Passaic.  In  1837 
and  1838  the  brothers  tried  an  exhaust  fan  on  a  horizontal 
spindle  in  the  chimney  of  one  of  their  shops.  This  was  so 
effective  that  they  placed  a  sister  fan  in  their  steamboat 
Philadelphia,  plying  the  Delaware  River.  The  final  method 
to  which  Edwin  Stevens  came  was  to  drive  air  above  at- 


26  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

mospheric  pressure  into  an  air-tight  fire-room.  This  is  the 
closed  stokehold  system  of  to-day. 

That  system  is  the  latest  feat- in  the  long  series  that  be- 
gan when  a  primeval  Edison  first  blew  a  fire  with  his 
breath.  He  had  a  worthy  successor  in  the  son,  or  daughter, 
who 'seized  a  palm  leaf  and  waved  it  as  a  fan.  Ages  there- 
after arose  the  devisers  of  leather  bellows,  such  as  linger 
to  this  day  in  country  forges,  or  hang  on  the  walls  of  mu- 
seums, with  carved  and  studded  woodwork.  Incomparably 
better  than  any  bellows  are  the  rotary  fans  now  whirling  in 
every  modern  boiler-room.  They  render  the  engineer  in- 
dependent of  fitful  winds,  so  that,  in  foggy  weather,  his  fires 
burn  as  vividly  as  if  a  Northern  gale  were  blowing.  He  is 
free  to  use  peat,  or  coal  of  poor  quality,  or  even  the  refuse 
from  sugar  cane,  fuels  that  refuse  to  burn  with  an  ordinary 
natural  draft.  With  all  fuels  an  improved  combustion 
yields  him  a  new  economy  of  one-seventh,  so  that  he  may 
use  a  smaller  boiler  than  would  otherwise  be  required. 
Mechanical  draft,  also,  lends  itself  to  mechanical  stoking. 
It  prevents  smoke.  It  shortens  chimneys,  or,  indeed,  dis- 
penses with  chimneys  altogether, — to  the  joy  of  design- 
ers of  men-of-war. 

Early  in  1838,  on  March  6,  while  his  sons  iwere  per- 
fecting their  methods  of  mechanical  draft,  Colonel  John 
Stevens  passed  away  at  the  ripe  age  of  eighty-nine.  His 
remains  were  laid  in  the  graveyard  of  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church,  Bergen,  New  Jersey.  Toward  the  close  of  his  life 
he  turned  with  zest  to  metaphysical  speculation.  A  volume 
which  he  planned  was  to  have  comprised  thirty-six  chapters. 
Of  these  he  completed  the  first,  on  the  skepticism  of  Hume, 
and  part  of  the  twenty-second,  on  "  Matter,  Body,  and  Ex- 
tension/' Long  before  that  period  he  had  been  warmly  in- 
terested in  combating  the  epidemics  which  from  time  to 
time  assailed  New  York.  He  had  once  been  severely  at- 
tacked by  yellow  fever,  an  ailment  treated  with  unusual  sue- 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS    27 

cess  by  his  friend  and  physician,  Dr.  David  Hosack.  On 
the  Colonel's  recovery  he  wrote  a  descriptive  article  about 
yellow  fever  in  the  American  Medical  and  Philosophical 
Register. 

Let  us  return  to  the  achievements  of  his  son,  Robert,  who, 
at  the  end  of  years  of  experiment,  had  perfected  a  system 
of  forced  draft.  This  was  but  one  among  many  of  his 
exploits  as  an  engineer.  His  activity  as  an  inventor  began 
as  early  as  1814,  and  in  the  field  of  gunnery.  For  service 
in  the  war  with  Great  Britain  he  devised  an  elongated  shell 
for  use  with  ordinary  cannon.  At  the  end  of  decisive  ex- 
periments, his  patents  were  bought  by  the  War  Department. 
On  one  occasion  at  Governor's  Island,  near  the  city  of  New 
York,  a  target  of  white  oak,  four  feet  thick,  was  destroyed 
by  one  of  his  shells  weighing  200  pounds,  and  carrying  13 
pounds  of  gunpowder.  He  sealed  each  shell  hermetically, 
so  that  no  deterioration  took  place  in  storage.  Some  shells, 
twenty-five  years  after  manufacture,  had  gunpowder  ex- 
ploded beneath  them,  others  were  taken  to  high  towers  and 
dropped  to  rocks  below,  all  without  causing  them  to  ex- 
plode. They  were  plunged  into  water,  and  placed  in  a  can- 
non :  upon  striking  their  target  they  burst  with  devastating 
effect. 

But  it  was  in  arts  of  peace  that  Robert  L.  Stevens  was 
to  win  his  chief  laurels.  He  changed  for  the  better  every 
feature  of  his  steamboats  as  first  designed.  He  suspended 
their  projecting  guards  from  above  by  iron  rods.  He 
strengthened  their  frames  with  ties  and  braces,  secured  by 
screwbolts.  By  a  judicious  placing  of  diagonal  knees  of 
wood  and  iron  he  reduced  weight  while  conferring  rigidity 
on  his  hulls.  In  1815,  in  the  Philadelphia,  he  began  to  use 
steam  expansively,  doubling  the  value  of  his  fuel.  He  was 
the  first  engineer  to  burn  anthracite  in  a  cupola  furnace: 
he  afterward  adopted  this  fuel  in  his  fast  steamboats,  begin- 
ning with  the  Passaic.  He  placed  the  boiler  on  the  guards 


28  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

of  his  steamers,  conducing  to  their  steadiness,  and  facilitat- 
ing both  coaling  and  stoking.  In  the  Trenton  he  introduced 
divided  paddle-wheels,  with  their  lessened  jar  and  quickened 
pace.  Beginning  with  the  Hoboken,  he  replaced  the  heavy 
walking-beam  of  cast-iron  with  the  wrought-iron  skeleton 
now  universal, — at  once  lighter  and  stronger.  In  the  North 
America  he  introduced  the  hog  frame,  in  which  large  tim- 
bers on  each  side  prevented  the  vessel  from  bending  or  be- 
ing "  hogged."  This  boat  was  so  well  contoured  that  she 
ran  at  fifteen  miles  an  hour,  the  utmost  speed  of  her  day. 
In  the  New  Philadelphia  he  placed  steel  spring  bearings 
under  the  wheel  shaft,  and  gave  the  engine,  for  the  first 
time,  valves  perfectly  balanced.  He  then  braced  the  con- 
necting rod,  so  as  to  prevent  its  tremulous  motion  and  add 
to  its  strength.  A  few  months  later  he  built  a  steamboat 
which  might  have  been  serviceable  in  Arctic  seas,  for  it 
easily  strode  through  heavy  ice  between  Camden  and  Phila- 
delphia. His  next  task  was  to  build  a  tubular  boiler  of  new 
economy:  its  flames  beat  under  the  boiler  and  returned 
through  its  tubes.  Leaky  pistons  had  bothered  him  for 
years,  wasting  fuel  and  lowering  speeds.  This  he  over- 
came by  making  steam  itself  press  his  packing-rings  against 
their  pistons,  with  a  tightness  denied  to  steel  springs  or 
India  rubber.  With  the  aid  of  a  nephew,  Francis  B. 
Stevens,  he  devised  a  cut-off  by  means  of  main  valves 
worked  by  two  eccentrics.  In  the  same  year,  1841,  he  in- 
vented for  his  locomotives  a  double-slide  cut-off.  This  he 
afterward  applied  in  large  stationary  engines.  He  greatly 
promoted  the  adhesion  of  his  locomotive  to  their  rails  by 
giving  them  eight  wheels  instead  of  four  or  six,  so  that 
short  curves  were  now  turned  with  but  slight  friction  on 
flanges. 

As  a  recreation  amid  so  much  hard  work,  Robert  L. 
Stevens  took  up  yachting.  Here  he  exercised,  with  delight, 
the  ingenuity  which  had  won  him  fame  and  fortune  in  steam 


[From  a  portrait  in  the  possession  of  Miss  M.  B.  P.  Garnett,  Hoboken.] 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS    29 

locomotion.  In  1844  he  built  the  big  sloop  Maria,  with 
two  centerboards  and  outside  lead  ballast.  She  was  for 
years  the  fastest  yacht  in  the  world,  and  in  many  respects 
she  was  the  prototype  of  the  swiftest  racing  machines  of 
to-day.  She  vanquished  the  America,  which,  in  her  turn, 
was  victorious  against  every  rival  in  British  waters.  In 
1860,  the  Maria,  commanded  by  her  owner,  overhauled  and 
sailed  around  the  revenue  cutter  Harriet  Lane,  carrying  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  afterward  King  Edward  VII.  Until  she 
foundered  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  in  1869,  she  remained  at 
the  head  of  her  class.  She  was  no  feet  in  length;  26  feet 
wide  8  inches,  in  beam ;  with  a  draft  of  6  inches  under  her 
forefoot,  increasing  to  a  maximum  of  5  feet  3  inches,  aft. 
Her  bow  was  long  and  hollow,  and  so  sharp  that  where  the 
bowsprit  entered  the  hull  the  bows  had  to  be  widened.  Her 
main  boom,  100  feet  long  and  3  feet  in  diameter,  was  built 
hollow  of  doweled  staves  of  white  pine,  bound  together  by 
iron  hoops  like  p.  barrel,  and  secured  by  iron  trusses.  In 
this  feature,  and  in  her  outside  lead,  the  Maria  was  many 
years  in  advance  of  her  time.  Her  lead  was  poured  into 
molds  5  inches  deep,  fixed  outside  on  her  bottom,  conform- 
ing to  the  lines  of  the  floor  for  a  distance  of  20  feet  on 
each  side  of  the  keel.  Her  mainsail  at  the  foot  measured 
96  feet,  and  her  jib — the  only  headsail  she  carried — 70 
feet.  This  was  laced  to  a  boom.  The  forward  center- 
board  was  weighted  with  lead,  and,  when  down,  drew 
20  feet.  Springs  fitted  to  its  base  enabled  it  to  touch  ground 
without  harm.  Her  speed  was  marvelous.  In  a  piping 
breeze,  in  smooth  water,  she  once  scored  17  nautical  miles 
an  hour.  In  rough  water  her  behavior  was  not  so  remark- 
able, so  that  the  Swedish  yacht  Coquette  once  passed  her 
in  bad  weather.  Nineteen  years  later,  in  1865,  she  was 
beaten  by  the  Magic.  The  success  of  the  Maria  had  much 
to  do  with  founding  the  New  York  Yacht  Club  in  the 
year  of  her  launching.  Every  contest  of  this  Club,  at 


30  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

home  and  abroad,  for  years  enlisted  the  keen  interest  of 
Robert  L.  Stevens  and  his  brother,  John  Cox  Stevens,  one 
of  the  owners  of  the  America,  the  first  yacht  to  cross  the 
Atlantic.  John  Cox  Stevens  was  managing  owner  of  the 
America  at  the  winning  of  the  America  cup,  retained  by 
American  yachts  to  the  present  day.  Mr.  Stevens  was  the 
first  commodore  of  the  New  York  Yacht  Club. 

And  now,  to  take  up  another  naval  feat  of  the  Stevens 
family,  we  must  hark  backward  to  1814,  when,  toward  the 
close  of  the  war  with  Great  Britain,  Colonel  John  Stevens 
projected  a  circular  iron  fort,  to  be  rotated  by  steam,  for  the 
defense  of  the  harbor  of  New  York.  He  directed  his  son 
Edwin,  then  a  youth  of  nineteen,  to  experiment  with  a  six- 
pounder  cannon  fired  against  iron  plates.  Iron  armor  for 
a  warrior's  body  had  been  worn  from  prehistoric  times.  In 
1530  the  largest  ship  of  that  day,  one  of  the  fleet  of  the 
Knights  of  Saint  John,  was  sheathed  with  lead  so  as  to 
withstand  every  shot  fired  at  her.  Iron  armor  for  vessels 
was  patented  by  Thomas  Gregg,  of  Pennsylvania,  in  1814. 
No  exemplification,  however,  of  this  armor  is  on  record 
until  1841,  when  the  United  States  was  once  again  on  the 
verge  Of  war  with  England.  In  that  year  Edwin  A.  Stevens 
reverted  to  his  experiments  of  1814.  In  a  formal  note  to 
the  War  Department  on  August  13,  1841,  he  and  his 
brother  John  presented  a  design  recommended  for  a  steam 
vessel  of  war.  Its  motive  power  should  be  out  of  the 
reach  of  shot  and  shell,  and  the  vessel  herself  should  be 
proof  against  attack.  Instead  of  wood  for  construction, 
iron  was  to  be  employed,  as  much  stronger  and  more  re- 
sistant, weight  for  weight.  In  1841  stout  armor  plate 
could  not  be  rolled  in  America,  so  that  comparatively  thin 
plates  were  to  be  riveted  in  tile  fashion  on  the  sides  of 
this  projected  ship.  She  should,  moreover,  be  capable  of 
high  speed,  so  as  to  take  any  desired  position  with  ease  and 
certainty.  To  afford  power  with  the  minimum  of  fuel,  her 


, 

JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS  si- 
boilers  were  to  be  so  strong  as  to  resist  high  pressure,  and 
their  steam  was  to  be  used  expansively.  Her  propeller  was 
to  be  a  Stevens  screw,  wholly  submerged. 

Robert  L.  Stevens  then  proceeded  to  learn  the  thickness 
of  plate  necessary  to  withstand  the  various  shot  then  em- 
ployed. From  experiments  at  Bordentown  he  found  that  a 
target  four  and  a  half  inches  thick  would  resist  a  four- 
pound  shot,  then  the  heaviest  missile  of  the  United  States 
Navy.  He  and  his  brother,  John  Cox  Stevens,  laid  these 
results  before  President  Tyler,  who  forthwith  appointed  a 
committee  to  continue  experiments.  These  fully  con- 
firmed the  tests  by  the  brothers  Stevens.  Thereupon  Con- 
gress authorized  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  contract 
with  Robert  L.  Stevens  for  an  ironclad  steamer,  to  be  shot- 
and-shell-proof.  With  his  brother  Edwin,  he  began  at 
once  to  plan  and  construct  this  vessel.  One  of  their  first 
tasks  was  to  build  a  dry-dock  at  Hoboken  for  their  ship. 
Next  they  built  at  Bordentown  a  steamboat  for  the  purpose 
of  experimenting  with  screw  propellers  of  various  curves, 
which  they  compared  with  sidewheels  as  to  efficiency. 
While  thus  engaged  they  devised  a  method  of  turning  a 
vessel  on  a  pivot,  as  it  were,  by  a  cross-propeller  near  her 
stern,  so  that,  in  case  one  battery  of  a  warship  were  dis- 
abled, the  other  might  be  quickly  presented. 

At  that  time  there  had  been  but  little  advance  in  gun- 
power  since  the  victory  of  Nelson  at  Trafalgar  in  1805. 
But  when  Commodore  Stockton,  after  the  failure  of  his  first 
gun  in  1844,  had  introduced  a  wrought-iron  gun  of  British 
make,  whose  round  shot  easily  pierced  four  and  a  half  inches 
of  iron,  Robert  L.  Stevens  had  to  thicken  his  armor,  and  this 
meant  enlarging  his  ship  so  as  to  keep  afloat  her  heavier 
burden.  There  and  then  began  for  the  navies  of  the  world 
their  unending  duel  betwixt  gun  and  armor.  As  guns  of 
new  might  were  cast,  new  resisters  were  imperative  on  the 
part  of  Mr.  Stevens.  Hence  interruptions  without  number, 


32  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

entailing  delay  after  delay,  and  asking  outlays  far  beyond 
those  authorized  by  Congress.  Thus  it  came  about  that 
when  Robert  L.  Stevens  died  in  1856,  his  warship  was  still 
unfinished,  although  her  plating  was  complete,  and  her  boil- 
ers were  in  place,  with  their  twin-screw  engines.  Her 
grates  exposed  a  surface  of  876  square  feet,  an  area  then 
extraordinary.  As  she  lay  at  her  basin  in  Hoboken,  she 
measured  410  feet  in  length,  45  feet  in  beam  inside  her 
armor  shelf,  with  her  deck  two  feet  above  the  water ;  being 
in  these  features  like  the  Monitor  class  of  vessels  built  six 
years  later  by  Ericsson,  but  differing  from  them  in  having  a 
turret  square  and  immovable  instead  of  circular  and  ro- 
tating. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  in  1861,  twenty  years 
after  his  proof  at  Sandy  Hook  that  a  ship  could  be  protected 
by  iron  armor,  Edwin  Stevens  presented  to  the  government 
of  the  United  States  a  plan  for  completing  the  Stevens 
Battery,  bequeathed  to  him  by  his  brother  Robert,  together 
with  the  Naugatuck,  a  small  vessel,  to  demonstrate  his 
schemes  as  practicable.  The  Naugatuck  was  accepted  by 
the  government,  and  was  one  of  the  first  fleet  which  attacked 
the  Merrimac.  She  was  a  twin-screw  vessel,  immersible  by 
water  ballast  to  three  feet  below  her  load-line,  so  as  to  be 
nearly  invisible,  with  pumps  which  could  lift  her  to  a  nor- 
mal plane  in  eight  minutes.  She  could  turn  end  for  end,  on 
her  center,  in  seventy-five  seconds.  As  Mr.  Stevens'  plans 
for  the  modification  of  his  battery  were  wholly  novel,  his 
offer  was  declined.  The  country  was  then  in  desperate 
need  of  armored  craft,  and  the  Navy  Department  was  pa- 
tiently hearing,  day  by  day,  designers  of  new  types  of 
armored  ships.  Yet  it  meant  nothing  to  these  naval  officials 
that  the  Stevens  family  were  eminent  as  engineers,  and  of 
the  highest  financial  responsibility.  Their  plans  included 
much  novel  mechanism,  and  bore  many  marks  of  forge  and 
foundry,  all  profoundly  distasteful  to  men  whose  tradi- 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS    33 

tions  were  of  sails  and  tackle.  Since  that  day  every  iota 
of  the  Stevens  plans  has  proved  not  merely  feasible,  but 
indispensable.  It  was  a  sad  sight  to  her  owner  to  see  his 
battery  through  all  the  recurrent  crises  of  the  Civil  War, 
untouched  in  her  basin.  In  1868,  three  years  after  Lee's 
surrender  at  Appomattox,  Edwin  Stevens  died,  bequeathing 
the  vessel  to  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  with  a  million  dol- 
lars for  her  completion.  This  sum  was  expended  in  1869 
and  1870.  Much  additional  outlay  was  necessary,  and,  as 
this  was  withheld  by  Congress,  she  was  taken  apart  in  1881 
and  reduced  to  junk. 

While  Robert  L.  Stevens  was  busy  constructing  this 
battery,  every  incident  bearing  on  his  work  was  eagerly 
wrought  into  his  plans.  One  day  a  North  River  steamer, 
the  Thomas  Powell,  through  derangement  of  her  rudder, 
ran  into  a  crib  dock,  smashing  its  heavy  timbers  and  dis- 
placing fifteen  feet  of  its  stone  filling.  The  vessel  then 
backed  out  of  the  wound  she  had  inflicted,  but  little  harmed 
by  her  onslaught.  Argued  Mr.  Stevens,  if  a  frail  wooden 
hull  can  do  all  this  damage  with  scarcely  any  hurt  to  her- 
self, an  iron  steamer  with  a  steel  prow  could  deliver  with 
impunity  a  mortal  blow  to  an  ordinary  ship.  His  convic- 
tion so  impressed  Congress  that  it  authorized  him,  in  1843, 
to  build  a  warship  equipped  with  an  immense  iron  ram,  ax- 
like  in  shape,  and  so  braced  and  supported  as  to  be  part 
and  parcel  of  the  hull  behind  it. 

Edwin  Augustus  Stevens  was  a  man  to  whom  wealth 
brought  a  keen  sense  of  responsibility.  Toward  the  close 
of  his  life  he  resolved  that  the  name  of  his  family  should 
be  borne  by  "  an  institution  for  the  benefit  of  the  youth 
residing  from  time  to  time  in  New  Jersey."  Accordingly, 
with  leaders  in  education  he  had  long  and  earnest  confer- 
ences, that  his  foundation  might  be  wisely  laid  and  firmly 
built  upon.  His  death  took  place  in  1868,  and  his  will  pro- 
vided for  the  projected  Stevens  Institute  of  Technology  at 


34  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Hoboken,  land  valued  at  $100,000,  a  building  fund  of 
$150,000,  and  $500,000  for  endowment,  in  all  three-quarters 
of  a  million  dollars.  In  June,  1911,  the  assets  of  the  In- 
stitute stood  at  $1,550,000,  including  gifts  from  Dr.  Henry 
Morton,  its  first  president,  of  $145,000;  and  from  Andrew 
Carnegie,  chiefly  for  endowment,  $340,000.  It  was  largely 
through  one  of  its  first  trustees,  Samuel  B.  Dod,  that  a 
school  of  mechanical  engineering  was  formed.  On  May 
27,  1911,  Edwin  Augustus  Stevens,  II. ,  son  and  namesake 
of  the  founder,  conveyed  a  part  of  his  father's  estate,  the 
Castle  and  its  grounds,  to  the  Institute,  to  serve  as  its 
social  rallying  center.  The  present  Castle  was  built  in  1853, 
on  the  site  of  the  original  residence  of  Colonel  John  Stevens. 
The  plans  of  President  Humphreys  for  the  development  of 
Stevens  Institute  center  in  the  acquisition  of  twenty-two 
acres  of  the  Stevens  Castle  estate.  This  would  provide  a 
site  for  an  engineering  college  unsurpassed  in  America, 
while  within  two  miles  of  the  City  Hall  of  New  York. 
President  Humphreys  says :  "  Stevens  Institute  stands  for 
thoroughness  in  engineering  education  and  well-balanced 
coordination  between  theory  and  practice.  Some  emphasis 
is  placed  on  the  mechanical  side  of  engineering,  but  not 
such  an  emphasis  as  to  make  it  a  narrow  course  in  educa- 
tion/' 

Stevens  Institute,  including  the  class  of  1912,  has  gradu- 
ated 1,686  students.  Among  these  are  many  engineers  of 
note,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  In  the  class  of  1883  aP~ 
peared  Frederick  Winslow  Taylor,  of  Philadelphia,  and,  had 
Stevens  no  other  student  of  whom  to  boast,  his  name  would 
amply  justify  its  existence.  Mr.  Taylor,  in  pursuing 
methods  begun  in  the  laboratory  and  workshops  at  Ho- 
boken, has  worked  out  scientific  management  from  prac- 
tice to  rule.  In  many  cases  his  methods  have  multiplied 
fourfold  the  output  of  a  factory  or  mill,  and  bid  fair  to 
bring  to  an  end  antagonisms  of  capital  and  labor  by  creating 


[From  a  portrait  in  the  possession  of  Miss  M.  B.  P.  Garnett,  Hoboken.] 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS     35 

for  them  both  a  new  and  large  profit  as  they  work  shoulder 
to  shoulder. 

While  Stevens  Institute  was  taking  form  in  the  mind 
of  its  founder,  his  constant  adviser  was  the  late  Abram  S. 
Hewitt,  of  New  York,  the  famous  ironmaster.  His 
services  as  a  Member  of  Congress  and  as  Mayor  of  New 
York  have  earned  for  him  grateful  remembrance  in  the 
Empire  State.  He  was  often  wont  to  recall  his  friendship 
with  the  successive  generations  of  the  Stevens  family,  and 
never  were  his  reminiscences  so  full  and  so  interesting  as 
when  he  addressed  the  alumni  on  February  18,  1897,  the 
twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  Stevens  In- 
stitute : 

"  I  suppose  that  I  am  one  of  the  very  few  persons  living 
who  can  say  that  they  have  seen  and  known  the  entire 
Stevens  family,  from  its  founder,  John  Stevens,  who  was 
born  in  1749,  before  the  Revolution,  as  well  as  his  children, 
grandchildren,  and  great-grandchildren,  who  have  gath- 
ered around  the  old  ancestral  home  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Hudson  River.  When  I  was  about  six  years  of  age  I  was 
taken  by  my  father  to  Hoboken  to  be  introduced  to  John 
Stevens,  because  I  had  a  few  days  before  seen  from  the  Jay 
Street  Wharf  a  magnificent  steamer,  with  four  ponderous 
smokestacks,  passingly  rapidly  up  the  Hudson  River,  and 
had  asked  whose  steamer  it  was,  and  where  it  was  going. 

"  My  father  told  me  that  there  were  two  of  these  boats, 
the  finest  in  the  world,  and  that  they  had  been  built  by  the 
Stevens  family  of  Hoboken.  I  said :  '  Do  you  know  the 
Stevens  family  ?  '  To  which  he  replied :  '  Yes.  I  will  take 
you  to  Hoboken  and  present  you  to  the  greatest  engineer 
of  his  time.' 

"  And  so  some  time  between  1828  and  1830,  I  was  taken 
to  Hoboken  and  introduced  to  John  Stevens,  who  was  then 
eighty-three  years  of  age,  but  in  possession  of  all  his 
faculties,  and  manifesting  the  greatest  possible  interest  in 
this  visit  from  an  old  friend  and  a  young  boy.  Familiarly 
he  called  my  father  '  John/  for  both  bore  the  same  name, 
and  my  father  said :  '  This  is  my  son.  I  want  him  to  see 


36  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

and  know  you.'  And  then  they  began  to  talk  of  old  times, 
and  particularly  of  this  remarkable  story,  which  was  so 
often  repeated  to  me  by  my  father,  or  else  I  should  not 
remember  it  so  well. 

"  My  father  was  the  draftsman  and  pattern-maker  who 
had  come  out  from  England,  with  a  party  of  machinists,  to 
erect  the  first  stationary  double-acting  condensing  engine 
which  was  put  at  work  in  America.  It  was  built  by  Boulton 
&  Watt  at  the  Soho  Works,  near  Birmingham  in  England, 
and  was  brought  out  and  erected  at  Centre  Square,  in  Phila- 
delphia, to  supply  that  city  with  water  before  the  Fairmount 
Works,  on  the  Schuylkill  River,  were  erected.  Thus  John 
Stevens  had  built  for  himself  the  first  Watt  engine  ever 
constructed  in  America.  His  corps  of  workers,  whose  chief 
was  an  engineer  named  Smalman,  included  Rhode,  an  iron- 
founder,  the  predecessor  and  instructor  of  James  P.  Allaire, 
who  founded  the  Allaire  Works  in  New  York.  These  men, 
with  my  father  as  draftsman  and  pattern-maker,  erected  a 
new  Soho  Works  at  Belleville,  near  Newark,  New  Jersey. 
There  John  Stevens  built  the  first  low-pressure  engine  ever 
constructed  in  America. 

"  Of  course,  this  interview  with  John  Stevens  made  a 
profound  impression  upon  my  mind,  and  on  my  way  home 
my  father  said : '  Yes,  that  engine  was  put  in  a  boat  in  which 
I  traversed  the  route  from  Belleville  to  New  York  and  back 
again,  John  Stevens  being  the  owner,  builder,  and  captain  of 
the  boat,  and  Mr.  Smalman,  Mr.  Rhode,  and  myself  being 
the  passengers ;  and  we  came  to  New  York  in  that  boat  nine 
years  before  Fulton  put  the  Clermont  on  the  Hudson.' 

"  Portions  of  the  engine  thus  constructed  were  for  a 
time  preserved  in  the  Stevens  Institute,  and  must  be  there 
still,  unless  transferred  to  the  National  Museum  at  Wash- 
ington. But  the  boat  in  which  the  engine  was  placed  must 
not  be  confounded  with  the  one  whose  model  I  see  here 
upon  the  table,  built  later,  in  1804,  with  a  double  screw,  and 
which  preceded  Fulton's  boat  by  four  or  five  years.  I  only 
remember  the  Belleville  boat  had  a  stern  wheel,  and  my 
father  said  that  Mr.  Stevens,  during  the  trip,  remarked  that 
wheels  should  have  been  placed  at  the  side,  and  not  at  the 
stern. 

".  .  .  Robert  L.  Stevens,  as  you  all  know,  was  the  de- 
signer of  what  is  known  as  the  flange  rail.  He  had  it  made 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS    37 

in  Wales  at  the  works  of  Sir  John  Guest,  and  with  such  ex- 
pedition that  within  two  years  from  the  time  of  undertak- 
ing the  practical  scheme  of  building  the  Camden  and  Amboy 
Railroad,  that  road  was  constructed  and  carrying  pas- 
sengers between  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  Robert  L. 
Stevens  and  his  brother  Edwin,  who  was  the  business  man- 
ager of  the  enterprise,  thus  performed  in  two  years  a  feat 
which  at  that  time,  if  you  will  consider  the  development  of 
the  mechanical  arts,  the  state  of  the  finances  of  the  world, 
and  the  unknown  elements  which  entered  into  the  problem, 
was  a  greater  performance  than  if  a  man  were  now  to 
build  a  road  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  in  two 
years. 

"  John  C.,  Robert,  and  Edwin  Stevens  had  tried  and 
trusted  assistants,  but  the  superintendence  of  the  work  to 
the  minutest  part  was  carried  out  by  themselves  personally. 
Together  they  built  railroads,  ferries,  steamboats,  yachts, 
and  ironclad  batteries ;  indeed,  these  three  brothers  worked 
as  though  they  were  one  man.  No  one  ever  heard  of  any 
quarrel  or  dissension  in  the  Stevens  family.  They  were 
workmen  themselves,  and  they  were  superior  to  their  sub- 
ordinates only  because  they  were  better  engineers  and  better 
men  of  business  than  any  other  folk  who  up  to  that  time 
had  undertaken  the  business  of  transportation  in  the  United 
States. 

".  .  .  These  men  were  the  pioneers  and  founders  who 
have  made  this  country  what  it  is.  ...  No  one  who  can- 
not go  back  as  I  can  to  the  time  when  there  were  no  rail- 
ways, no  ocean  steamers,  no  telegraphs,  no  telephones,  no 
armored  navies,  when  the  great  West  was  yet  unsettled, 
when  this  great  empire  was  a  wilderness, — cannot  recall  the 
primitive  condition  of  things,  and  did  not  see  it,  can  realize 
what  the  Stevens  family  has  done  for  America. 

"  I  have  said  enough  of  the  achievements  of  this  re- 
markable family,  but  I  have  not  said  enough  of  the  other 
side  of  their  personality, — the  lovely,  gentle,  sweet,  and 
human  character  which  belonged  to  the  father  and  the 
three  brothers  of  whom  I  have  spoken.  I  told  you  that  I 
was  a  poor  and  diffident  boy,  yet  when  I  was  brought  into 
contact  with  them  I  never  was  made  to  feel  that  there  was 
any  difference  in  social  standing,  in  wealth,  in  years,  or  even 
ability.  I  was  welcomed  to  Castle  Point  in  my  early  youth 


38  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

just  as  I  would  be  to-day  by  the  honored  mistress  of  that 
mansion.  They  did  not  believe  that  the  acquisition  of 
wealth  was  sufficient  for  the  development  of  human  nature. 
They  knew  that  the  emotional  side  of  man's  nature  controls 
in  the  long  run,  and  that  the  reason  is  always  the  servant 
of  the  imagination.  Hence,  when  they  ran  stage-coaches, 
they  had  fine  horses ;  when  they  ran  boats  for  profit  to  Al- 
bany, they  adorned  them  with  pictures  and  beautiful  ob- 
jects. The  sense  for  beauty  was  manifest  in  all  that  they 
did.  Their  leisure  hours  were  regaled  by  the  charms  of  art 
and  music.  I  believe  that  no  connoisseur  who  ever  lived 
in  New  York  was  superior  to  Robert  Stevens  in  knowledge 
of  music,  and  no  man  ever  lived  who  enjoyed  it  more. 

'  The  Stevens  Institute  was  created  by  Mr.  E.  A.  Stevens' 
will,  which  was  signed  on  April  15,  1867,  on  the  night  be- 
fore he  embarked  on  the  Great  Eastern  for  that  trip  from 
which  he  was  never  to  return.  It  was  my  good  fortune  to 
accompany  him.  He  was  very  anxious  to  understand  the 
Great  Eastern.  .  .  .  During  the  voyage  I  had  many  con- 
versations with  Mr.  Stevens  on  the  subject  of  the  Stevens 
Institute.  Mr.  Peter  Cooper,  my  father-in-law,  had 
founded  the  Cooper  Union  in  New  York,  and  it  had  been 
in  operation  for  eight  years  at  that  time.  I  explained  to 
Mr.  Stevens  that  Mr.  Cooper  was  a  mechanic,  and  that  his 
foundation  was  for  mechanics;  that,  as  the  Stevens  family 
were  engineers,  it  was  fitting  in  every  way  that  the  Stevens 
Institute  should  be  devoted  to  the  education  of  engineers.  I 
explained  to  him  that  all  the  resources  of  the  Cooper  Union 
were  giving  the  education  which  mechanics  needed,  and  that 
what  was  wanted  in  this  country  was  a  higher  institution 
which  could  start  where  the  mechanic  ended,  and  produce 
the  engineers  who  were  to  become  the  leaders  of  modern 
enterprise  and  the  captains  of  industry. 

"  Mr.  Stevens  entered  heartily  into  this  view  of  the  sub- 
ject, so  that  I  have  reason  to  know  that,  while  the  will 
provides  for  '  an  institution  of  learning/  President  Morton, 
with  the  approval  of  the  trustees,  carried  into  effect  the 
views  which  Mr.  Stevens  entertained  as  to  the  objects  of 
the  institution  and  the  place  it  should  fill  in  the  domain  of 
education. 

"  But  I  referred  to  the  voyage  which  we  took  together 
for  the  purpose  mainly  of  showing  some  of  the  traits  of  Mr. 


JOHN  AND  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  STEVENS    39 

Stevens,  which  made  him  so  interesting  and  lovable  to  his 
friends.  The  Great  Eastern,  for  want  of  funds,  had  but  a 
scanty  supply  of  bituminous  coal,  which  was  supplemented 
by  a  stock  of  anthracite,  which  not  a  stoker  on  board  had 
ever  used  or  even  seen  before.  The  Captain,  Sir  James 
Anderson,  came  to  us  and  asked  what  he  should  do.  So 
Mr.  Stevens,  seventy-two  though  he  was,  and  I,  crawled 
down  through  many  devious  passages  until  we  reached  the 
boiler-room,  and  there  found  a  very  discouraged  lot  of  peo- 
ple who  were  trying  to  burn  anthracite  as  they  would  burn 
bituminous  coal.  Of  course,  their  fire  went  out,  and  you 
will  be  astonished  to  learn  that  he  and  I,  mostly  he,  spent 
nearly  two  days  in  the  boiler-room,  teaching  those  stokers 
how  to  burn  anthracite  coal,  which  we  succeeded  in  doing 
so  that  we  duly  arrived  at  Brest.  This  is  a  simple  illustra- 
tion of  the  character  of  Mr.  Stevens. 

"  The  Stevens  family  in  the  last  generation  were  creators 
as  well  as  founders.  You  gentlemen  who  have  profited  by 
the  beneficence,  and  foresight,  of  Edwin  A.  Stevens,  are 
reaping  the  fruits  of  the  seed  which  his  family  sowed 
abundantly  in  their  day  and  generation.  They  were  men 
not  only  of  great  sagacity  and  untiring  energy,  but  of  a 
high  order  of  courage.  When  Robert  L.  Stevens  found 
that  Fulton  had  preceded  him  by  a  few  weeks  in  placing  the 
Clermont  on  the  Hudson,  thus  securing  the  monopoly  of 
the  navigation  of  that  river,  he  boldly  took  the  Phoenix 
by  sea  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia,  thus  gaining  the 
imperishable  glory  of  being  the  first  man  to  traverse  the 
ocean  with  a  boat  propelled  by  steam.  The  honor  is 
heightened  by  the  fact  that,  while  Fulton  had  imported  his 
engine  from  England,  Stevens  used  one  which  he  had  con- 
structed in  America,  and  which  I  believe  to  have  been  in 
part  identical  with  the  one  I  have  referred  to,  as  used  in 
propelling  the  boat  which  ran  from  Belleville  to  New  York 
in  1799."  * 

*The  "Abram  S.  Hewitt  Memorial"  was  erected  in  1912  beside 
Cooper  Union.  It  will  eventually  comprise  six  stories  accommodat- 
ing the  technical  and  scientific  departments  of  the  Union. 


ROBERT  FULTON 

RICH  harvests,  we  are  often  told,  await  explorers  who 
will  but  pass  beyond  the  horizons  now  limiting  our  studies 
of  atom  and  molecule,  body  and  mind.  All  this  is  true : 
every  word  said  on  behalf  of  original  research  is  just  and 
worth  heeding.  It  is  also  true  that  much  golden  knowl- 
edge, won  long  ago,  is  less  honored  by  use  than  it  deserves 
to  be.  We  inherit,  and  neglect  our  inheritance,  while  we 
laboriously  seek  possessions  of  much  less  worth.  It  is  well 
that  discovery  should  steadily  advance ;  it  would  be  well  also 
to  bring  plow  and  seed  to  vast  areas  that  have  for  many 
years  lain  fallow.  This  was  what  Robert  Fulton  thought 
more  than  a  century  ago.  He  is  commonly  supposed  to 
have  invented  the  steamboat.  He  did  nothing  of  the  kind. 
The  steamboat  was  launched  and  plied  long  before  he  trod 
its  deck.  Its  supreme  value,  ignored  by  heedless  eyes,  he 
distinctly  saw.  With  enterprise  and  perseverance  he  put 
the  steamboat  at  work  in  earnest:  soon  his  example  was 
followed  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  by  scores  of  acute 
men  of  business.  And  Fulton  had  shrewd  common  sense 
as  well  as  a  keen  prophetic  gaze.  His  boats  on  the  Hud- 
son, from  their  first  trip,  earned  a  good  dividend,  so  punc- 
tual was  their  carriage  of  passengers  and  freight. 

Why  was  it  left  to  Fulton,  and  so  recently  as  1807,  to 
accomplish  a  feat  so  simple?  Because  civilized  nations  had 
not  fully  awakened  to  what  the  steam  engine  stood  ready 
to  do  for  them.  Watt,  in  trebling  its  efficiency,  had  ush- 
ered in  the  mechanical  age.  Before  his  day,  a  Newcomen 
engine,  here  and  there,  turned  a  winch  or  pumped  a  mine. 
But  the  usual  prime-mover  was  a  water-wheel,  a  windmill, 

40 


^^^Z-T^^* 


^*»—  -^ 

[From  the  "Portrait  of  Himself"  owned  by  the  late  Col.  Henrv  T. 
Chapman,  of  Brooklyn,  exhibited  at  the  Museum  of  the  Brooklyn  Institute 
of  Arts  and  Sciences.] 


ROBERT  FULTON  41 

or  an  inclined  plane  gliding  under  the  patient  tread  of 
horses.  Watt's  engine,  with  its  new  economy,  created  new 
fields  for  itself:  it  was  soon  applied  to  spinning-jennies  and 
looms,  as  well  as  to  hoisting  and  pumping.  Could  it  be 
taken  aboard  ship  as  an  aid  to  sails?  This  question  oc- 
curred independently  to  many  engineers  at  the  same  time, 
and  why  not?  On  every  sea,  boats  and  ships  were  often 
becalmed  for  days  together;  as  frequently  they  faced  ad- 
verse gales  and  currents.  It  needed  no  more  ingenuity  to 
yoke  a  steam  engine  to  a  paddle-wheel,  or  to  a  screw 
propeller,  than  to  link  it  to  a  pair  of  millstones  or  to  the 
derrick  of  a  shipyard.  The  steamboat  was,  accordingly, 
invented,  and  in  several  places  far  apart,  a  task  which 
proved  much  less  difficult  than  to  secure  its  adoption.  Who 
was  the  man  who  accomplished  this  feat? 

Robert  Fulton  was  born  in  Little  Britain,  Lancaster 
County,  Pennsylvania,  on  November  14,  1765.  His  father, 
of  the  same  name,  of  Scottish-Irish  blood,  had  immigrated 
from  Kilkenny  about  thirty  years  before.  The  farmhouse 
in  which  Fulton  was  born  is  still  standing:  it  remains,  in 
part,  as  it  met  his  gaze  as  an  infant.  When  he  was  a  year 
old,  his  parents  removed  to  the  town  of  Lancaster,  where 
they  had  formerly  lived.  In  1768,  when  Robert  was  only 
three  years  of  age,  his  father  died,  leaving  a  widow  and 
five  children,  with  but  a  small  estate  for  their  maintenance. 
Under  these  circumstances,  Robert  could  receive  but  scant 
education.  Like  many  another  boy  of  original  powers, 
he  did  not  excel  at  his  printed  lessons.  When  but  ten 
years  old  he  told  his  schoolmaster  that  his  "  head  was 
so  full  of  his  own  ideas  that  there  was  no  room  for  the 
storage  of  dusty  books."  Even  at  that  early  age  his  natural 
gifts  began  to  appear.  He  hammered  out  pencils  from 
stray  bits  of  sheet-lead  that  came  in  his  way,  and  these  he 
employed  to  draw  with  an  ease  and  accuracy  that  steadily 
increased.  He  could  soon  sketch  a  friend's  likeness,  a  neigh- 


42  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

boring  landscape,  or  a  new  machine.  Benjamin  West,  the 
artist,  lived  in  the  adjoining  county  of  Chester.  He  had 
been  a  warm  friend  of  Fulton's  father,  whose  home  was 
adorned  by  family  portraits  from  the  brush  of  West.  These 
and  other  of  his  canvasses,  at  home  and  in  neighboring 
houses,  young  Robert  ardently  admired.  He  had  enough 
artistic  judgment  to  feel  that  West  was  a  master:  he 
earnestly  longed  that  he  himself  might  some  day  be  a  painter, 
too.  • 

There  was  a  streak  of  adventure  in  this  boy.  Reigate, 
whose  biography  of  Fulton  appeared  in  1856,  tells  us : 

"On  July  i,  1778,  the  following  notice  was  published  in 
Lancaster : 

"  '  The  excessive  heat  of  the  weather,  the  present  scarcity 
of  candles,  and  other  considerations,  induce  the  Council  to 
recommend  to  the  inhabitants  to  forbear  illuminating  the 
city  on  Saturday  evening  next,  July  4th. 
"  '  By  order, 
"  '  TIMOTHY  MATLACK,  Secretary.' 

"  Robert  had  candles  prepared  and  went  to  John  Fisher, 
brushmaker,  living  near  the  jail,  who  kept  powder  and  shot 
for  sale.  Fisher  was  astonished  at  Robert's  desire  to  part 
with  the  candles,  which  were  then  scarce  articles :  and  he 
asked  why  he  wished  to  part  with  them?  Robert  replied 
that  '  our  rulers  have  requested  the  citizens  to  forbear 
illuminating  their  windows  and  streets ;  as  good  citizens  we 
should  respect  their  request;  and  I  prefer  illuminating  the 
heavens  with  skyrockets.'  Having  procured  the  powder,  he 
left  Fisher's  store,  and  entered  a  small  variety  store  kept 
by  Theophilus  Cossart,  where  he  asked  the  price  of  the 
largest  pasteboard.  Having  bought  several  sheets,  he  said 
that  he  meant  to  make  rockets  with  them.  '  Tut,  tut ! ',  said 
Cossart,  '  that's  an  impossibility.'  '  No,  sir/  said  Robert, 
'  there  is  nothing  impossible.' '; 

Young  Fulton  had  not  only  artistic  faculty,  which  made 
him  an  admirer  of  West,  he  had  the  constructiveness  of  a 
born  mechanic.  The  best  gunsmiths  in  the  State  were  Isch 


ROBERT  FULTON  43 

&  Messersmith,  \vhose  premises  were  near  his  home.  Rob- 
ert had  free  access  to  their  workshop,  and  there,  without 
formal  engagement  or  apprenticeship,  he  learned  the  art  of 
a  gunsmith.  While  still  a  boy,  he  made  capital  stocks,  locks, 
barrels,  and  other  parts  of  pistols  and  guns.  Here  his  skill 
with  the  pencil  stood  him  in  good  stead ;  he  drew  new  pat- 
terns skilfully  and  well ;  their  outlines  were  as  clear 
in  his  imagination  as  were  the  finished  arms  to  his  eye. 
Yet  more:  he  computed  the  best  proportions  for  a  fire- 
arm, and  his  figures  proved  true  when  tested  with  powder 
and  ball. 

But  Robert  was  not  always  at  work :  sometimes  he  took  a 
holiday.  When  he  was  about  fourteen  he  went  with  a 
chum,  Christopher  Gumpf,  on  a  fishing  excursion,  taking 
his  turn  at  poling  the  boat.  Robert  found  the  exercise  more 
severe  than  he  liked.  Soon  thereafter  he  built  a  boat  driven 
by  paddle-wheels;  it  demanded  less  muscular  exertion  than 
poling,  so  the  boys  used  it  for  several  seasons  as  they  fished 
on  the  Conestoga  Creek,  near  Rockford.  This  service  of 
paddle-wheels  clung  to  the  young  sportsman's  memory,  to  be 
fruitfully  revived,  as  we  shall  duly  see.  But  at  that  time 
there  was  more  in  the  air  of  Pennsylvania  than  an  interest 
in  the  mechanics  of  navigation.  While  peace  prevailed, 
there  was  a  threat  of  war,  and  a  threat  to  be  soon  fulfilled. 
Fulton  was  eleven  years  old  when  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence was  signed  in  Philadelphia.  As  a  boy  and  a 
youth  he  saw  all  that  led  to  the  War  of  the  Revolution ;  and 
later  he  beheld  the  founding  of  the  Union,  with  the  nom- 
ination of  George  Washington  as  President.  Naturally  he 
imbibed  the  convictions  of  his  kith  and  kin,  and  joined  in 
their  whole-souled  hatred  of  the  Tories.  This  feeling  was 
intensified  by  the  quartering  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  troop 
of  Hessians,  sent  out  by  King  George  III.  Robert  made 
fun  of  these  mercenaries  in  more  than  one  spirited  carica- 
ture. All  this  atmosphere  of  conflict,  together  with  his 


44  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

learning  the  trade  of  a  gunsmith,  told  deeply  upon  his  mind 
and  heart,  as  we  shall  presently  note. 

But  as  Fulton  grew  from  youth  to  manhood,  art  drew 
him  more  strongly  than  arms.  So  well  did  he  draw  and 
paint,  so  much  pleasure  did  he  feel  in  wielding  pencil  and 
brush,  that,  when  seventeen,  he  went  to  Philadelphia,  there 
to  earn  his  bread  at  the  easel.  He  did  that  and  more.  On 
his  twenty-first  birthday  he  came  home  with  money  enough 
to  buy  his  mother  a  small  farm  in  Washington  County. 
While  in  Philadelphia,  then  the  capital  of  the  country,  his 
talents  and  address,  his  good  nature  and  good  will,  gained 
him  attached  friends.  He  was  presented  one  day  to  Ben- 
jamin Franklin,  then  in  his  seventy-sixth  year,  who  was 
about  to  embark  for  France,  there  to  represent  his  country 
with  distinction.  It  was  during  his  stay  in  Philadelphia 
that  Fulton  acquired  the  tact  and  courtesy  which  marked 
him  ever  afterward,  and  so  notably  smoothed  his  difficulties 
as  an  inventor  and  a  pioneer. 

At  home  in  Lancaster,  it  was  plain  that  his  health  was 
impaired.  His  lungs  showed  weakness ;  he  had  worked  too 
long  and  too  hard  in  an  ill-ventilated  studio.  He  resolved 
to  go  abroad,  where  he  could  study  art  and  enjoy  a  holiday 
at  the  same  time.  His  friend,  Benjamin  West,  had  risen 
to  fame  and  fortune  in  London ;  from  him  he  might  reason- 
ably look  for  aid  and  counsel.  After  a  refreshing  sojourn 
at  the  Warm  Sulphur  Springs  of  Virginia,  he  sailed  for 
England  late  in  1786.  Mr.  West  received  him  most  hos- 
pitably, and  this  kindness  Fulton  endeavored  to  requite. 
West's  pictures  were  then  to  be  had  at  prices  comparatively 
low.  Fulton  sought  to  secure  a  series  of  them  for  Phila- 
delphia, but  he  failed  to  collect  the  fund  required,  mod- 
erate though  it  was.  To-day  the  Academy  of  Fine  Arts 
in  that  city  has  West's  "  Death  on  a  Pale  Horse,"  "  Paul 
and  Barnabas,"  and  "  Christ  Rejected,"  three  characteristic 
compositions. 


ROBERT  FULTON  45 

Fulton,  while  traveling  as  an  artist  in  Devonshire,  be- 
came acquainted  with  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater  and  Earl 
Stanhope.  Both  noblemen  were  warmly  interested  in  en- 
gineering as  well  as  in  fine  art ;  there  was  much  to  win  their 
regard  in  the  young  American,  who  was  as  much  at  home 
at  the  lathe  as  at  the  easel.  The  vast  estate  of  the  Duke 
of  Bridgewater  held  minerals  of  great  value,  if  they  could 
only  be  brought  to  market.  Manchester  nearby,  already  an 
important  center  for  manufactures,  needed  coal  such  as 
abounded  in  the  lands  of  the  Duke,  who  at  length  engaged 
Brindley,  the  engineer,  to  build  him  canals  on  a  compre- 
hensive scale.  Fulton  discussed  with  the  Duke  every  de- 
tail of  these  projected  waterways,  with  the  effect  that,  in 
his  own  brain,  art  became  eclipsed  by  engineering,  and  per- 
manently. Earl  Stanhope  was  of  a  wholly  different  type 
from  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater;  he  was  a  man  of  paper 
projects  rather  than  a  practical  inventor.  He  was  fully 
alive  to  the  benefits  which  canals  would  confer  on  England ; 
indeed,  it  was  his  pamphlet  on  this  subject  that  first  directed 
Fulton's  mind  to  canal-building.  Lord  Stanhope  one  day 
told  Fulton  that  he  meant  to  equip  a  boat  with  a  steam 
engine,  using  a  propeller  modeled  on  the  web  foot  of  a 
waterfowl,  opening  as  thrust  backward  in  the  water,  and 
closing  when  driven  forward.  Fulton  told  the  Earl  that 
such  a  propeller  was  not  feasible.  It  would  meet  so  much 
resistance  as  to  be  unendurably  slow. 

In  1794,  Fulton,  freed  from  the  toil  of  his  brush,  was 
prolific  in  new  devices.  He  invented  and  patented  double 
inclined  planes  to  carry  a  ship  overland  from  one  canal 
or  stream  to  another.  Planes  of  this  kind  were  duly 
adopted  on  the  Morris  and  Essex  Canal  in  New  Jersey. 
Captain  James  B.  Eads'  scheme  of  a  trans-isthmian  rail- 
road, to  unite  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans,  was  de- 
veloped from  these  designs.  Fulton  took  a  broad,  states- 
manlike view  of  transportation  as  a  national  unifier.  Said 


46  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

he :  "I  contemplate  a  time  when  canals  shall  pass  through 
every  vale,  winding  around  each  hill,  and  bind  the  whole 
country  together  in  bonds  of  social  intercourse."  His  fore- 
cast of  national  unification  is  fulfilled,  but  chiefly  by  rail- 
roads, which  have  reduced  canals  to  a  subordinate  place. 
Let  us  pursue  Fulton's  interest  in  these  waterways  until  we 
reach  1807,  when  he  returned  to  America,  and  pleaded  with 
the  National  Government  for  a  comprehensive  canal  policy. 
In  1810  he  wrote  the  Legislature  of  New  York  on  the  same 
subject.  His  advocacy  in  mind,  he  was  afterward  ap- 
pointed a  commissioner  to  investigate  the  feasibility  of  con- 
necting the  Great  Lakes  with  the  Hudson  River.  This 
project  fired  his  imagination;  a  year  before  his  death  he 
urged  it  with  force  and  eloquence.  His  persuasions  finally 
blossomed  in  the  building  of  the  Erie  Canal,  an  enterprise 
which  gave  a  golden  impulse  to  the  fortunes  of  New  York 
City. 

To  return  to  1794,  when  Fulton  was  living  in  Birming- 
ham, not  far  from  Boulton  &  Watt's  manufactory  of 
steam  engines.  During  this  year,  in  quick  succession,  he 
devised  a  marble-sawing  machine,  a  machine  to  spin  flax, 
and  a  rope-making  apparatus.  He  also  designed  a  mechan- 
ical dredger,  or  power-shovel,  for  canals.  This  was  long 
used  in  England;  it  foreran  the  excavator,  since  familiar  in 
surface  mining  and  railroad  construction  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic.  In  1795  he  invented  an  iron  aqueduct,  whose 
parts  could  be  cast  in  open  sand,  and  erected  with  simple 
staging.  This  aqueduct  could  be  rendered  water-tight 
much  more  easily  than  stonework.  A  structure  on  this  plan 
was  built  over  the  Dee,  at  Pont-y-Cysyllte,  twenty  miles 
from  Chester ;  its  spans,  each  of  52  feet,  were  supported  on 
pillars,  the  highest  standing  126  feet  from  the  ground.  He 
applied  similar  principles  to  bridges,  several  of  which  were 
built  for  the  Surrey  Iron  Railway.  Some  of  these  bridges 
were  provided  with  endless  ropes  for  haulage,  using  water- 


ROBERT  FULTON  47 

power,  so  as  to  dispense  with  horses  and  their  towpaths. 
Another  of  Fulton's  plans,  greatly  extended  since  its  alli- 
ance with  steam,  was  to  discharge  loads  from  cars  or 
wagons  into  slides  leading  to  wharves.  These  inventions 
were  described  and  illustrated  in  papers  which  were  lost  at 
sea  in  1804,  aboard  a  ship  bound  for  New  York.  No  such 
mishap  befell  his  treatise  on  "  Canal  Navigation,"  published 
in  1795,  presenting  original  designs  for  locks  and  other  ac- 
cessories of  canals.  This  work  displays  Fulton's  excellence 
as  a  draughtsman :  every  line  from  his  pencil  is  clear  and 
neat.  As  a  modeler  he  was  equally  skilful.  These  gifts 
were  partnered  with  uncommon  practical  ability.  His  com- 
putations of  cost  were  exact  and  cautious,  giving  all  di- 
mensions, the  load  for  each  horse  or  wagon,  the  speed  of 
projected  machinery,  with  careful  estimates  of  revenue  and 
net  profits. 

In  1797,  France  and  England  were  temporarily  at  peace. 
A  new  chapter  in  Fulton's  life  opened  when,  in  that  year, 
he  went  to  Paris  to  patent  his  inventions,  and  offer  them 
to  the  French  people.  He  took  credentials  to  Joel  Barlow, 
an  eminent  American  publicist,  who  received  him  most  cor- 
dially. In  Mr.  Barlow's  house  Fulton  resided  for  seven 
years,  a  cherished  friend.  During  this  period  Fulton  il- 
lustrated his  host's  ambitious  poem,  "  The  Columbiad," 
which  was  dedicated  to  Fulton,  who,  in  1807,  published  it 
at  a  cost  of  $5,000.  Another  task  in  art  was  his  huge  pano- 
rama, produced  in  1800,  "  The  Burning  of  Moscow."  This 
canvas,  delineating  an  early  conflagration  in  the  Russian 
capital,  was  a  singular  forecast  of  the  tragedy  in  1812, 
which  cost  Napoleon  the  flower  of  his  army,  and  drove  him 
from  Russia.*  But  it  was  not  to  illustrate  poetry  or  to 

*In  the  memorable  retreat  from  Moscow,  Barlow,  then  minister 
to  France  from  the  United  States,  fell  a  victim.  He  was  to  lay  the 
draft  of  a  treaty  before  Napoleon,  and  proceeded  to  Russia  with  that 
purpose.  Barlow,  traveling  in  a  carriage,  through  extreme  cold 


48  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

paint  panoramas  that  Fulton  came  to  Paris.  David  Bush- 
nell,  of  Connecticut,  during  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  had 
applied  clockwork  to  magazines  of  gunpowder,  sunk  with 
intent  to  destroy  the  invader's  warships.  This  apparatus, 
from  crudity  of  design  and  faulty  workmanship,  had  failed, 
but  Fulton  saw  in  it  the  germ  of  a  weapon  so  deadly  that  it 
might  prove  fatal  to  war  itself. 

Late  in  1797,  with  aid  from  Barlow,  Fulton  began  experi- 
ments with  cylinders  of  gunpowder  exploded  under  water. 
These  he  called  torpedoes,  from  the  cramp-fish  of  that 
name,  which  paralyzes  or  kills  its  victims  by  an  electric 
shock.  Fulton's  first  torpedoes  failed:  their  failure  taught 
him  how  to  improve  his  plans.  His  amended  designs  were 
offered  to  the  Dutch  Government  through  Mr.  Schimmel- 
penninck,  ambassador  from  Holland  to  France.  A  com- 
missioner was  appointed  by  the  Batavian  Republic  to  ex- 
amine Fulton's  scheme;  he  gave  the  inventor  no  encour- 
agement. At  this  juncture  a  Dutchman,  Mr.  Vanstaphast, 
furnished  Fulton  with  means  for  the  construction  of  an 
improved  machine.  This  he  offered  to  the  Batavian  Gov- 
ernment, eliciting  no  response.  By  1800,  partly  with  profits 
from  his  panorama,  Fulton  built  his  first  diving-boat,  the 
Nautilus.  It  embodied  original  features  which  survive  in 
all  the  submersible  craft  of  to-day,  and  which  stamp  Fulton 
as  an  inventor  of  the  first  rank.  She  was  launched  on  the 
Seine,  near  Rouen,  on  July  30,  1800,  and  submerged  for 
three  hours,  the  river  at  that  point  being  about  twenty-five 
feet  deep.  Next  day  Fulton  took  his  boat  down  the  Seine 
to  Havre,  where  he  carried  out  further  experiments.  Soon 
afterward  he  built  at  Paris  a  second  and  improved  Nautilus. 

and  privation,  was  attacked  by  pneumonia  on  his  way  to  Wilna, 
where  he  was  to  meet  the  Emperor.  At  Zarnaweic,  a  village  near 
Cracow,  Barlow  could  proceed  no  further;  and  there,  on  December 
24,  1812,  he  died.  His  biography,  by  Charles  Burr  Todd,  appeared 
in  1886. 


ROBERT  FULTON  49 

She  had  iron  ribs  and  was  sheathed  with  copper ;  her  shape 
was  that  of  a  long  narrow  egg.  On  her  deck  in  a  groove 
lay  a  small  mast,  which  could  be  erected  from  a  hinge. 
In  the  interior,  about  six  feet  in  diameter,  were  the  handles 
of  the  oars,  arranged  screw  fashion.  A  reservoir  for  water, 
controlled  by  a  lever,  enabled  the  vessel  to  descend  at  will. 
She  rose  in  obedience  to  a  force-pump.  This  Nautilus  was 
finished  in  June,  1801,  and  was  tested  on  the  Seine  above 
the  Hotel  des  Invalides.  Fulton  and  a  sailor  shut  them- 
selves in,  with  a  single  candle,  and  remained  under  water 
twenty  minutes,  emerging  after  a  voyage  of  several  hun- 
dred yards.  He  again  descended  and  returned  to  his  first 
point  of  departure,  amid  the  applause  of  thousands  of 
spectators. 

No  picture  of  the  first  Nautilus  is  known  to  exist.  It  is 
said  to  have  had  a  superstructure  which  gave  it  the  look 
of  an  ordinary  boat  when  on  the  water.  At  the  top  for- 
ward rose  a  dome-like  conning  tower  with  glass  scuttles; 
just  abaft  was  a  mast  built  of  light  spars  framed  together 
so  as  to  stow  snugly  along  the  top  of  the  boat  when  sub- 
merged. The  keel  was  a  heavy  metal  bar  which  formed  a 
counterpoise  and  steadied  the  boat.  The  anchors  and  hoist- 
ing apparatus  were  in  a  compartment  right  forward,  while 
amidships  was  the  handworked  mechanism  that  revolved 
the  propeller.  Whether  this  propeller  was  a  screw,  or  a 
wheel  fitted  with  elliptical  buckets,  is  uncertain.  The  tor- 
pedo appliance  was  like  that  of  Bushnell's  "  turtle,"  the 
wood  screw  coming  through  the  dome  of  the  conning 
tower.  The  torpedo  itself  was  fitted  with  a  gun-lock  fired 
by  a  lanyard  instead  of  Bushnell's  clockwork. 

Through  his  friend,  the  secretary  of  the  port  of  Brest,  Ful- 
ton received  from  Napoleon  an  order  to  direct  his  torpedo- 
boat  against  the  British  fleet,  then  blockading  the  French 
coast.  If  he  destroyed  a  warship  of  ten  guns  he  was  to 
receive  60,000  francs ;  with  rewards  rising  to  400,000  francs 


50  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

if  he  blew  up  a  vessel  of  more  than  thirty  guns.  Three 
leading  members  of  the  National  Institute,  Monge,  Laplace, 
and  Volney,  were  appointed  by  Napoleon  to  examine  and 
report  upon  the  performance  of  this  Nautilus.  In  a  note  to 
them  Fulton  said:  "  On  the  third  of  Thermidor  (the  elev- 
enth month  of  the  French  Republican  calendar)  I  com- 
menced my  experiments  by  plunging  to  a  depth  of  5  feet, 
then  10  feet,  then  15  feet,  and  so  on  to  25  feet.  I  went 
no  further,  as  the  machine  could  bear  no  greater  pressure  of 
superincumbent  water.  My  boat  had  212  cubic  feet 
capacity,  containing  enough  oxygen  to  support  four  men 
and  two  small  candles  for  three  hours." 

This  Nautilus  plunged  and  rose  while  perpendicular;  it 
turned  to  the  right  or  left  at  pleasure.  Its  compass  was 
unaffected  by  submersion.  In  later  experiments  air  was 
compressed  in  a  brass  globe  to  a  pressure  of  two  hundred 
atmospheres,  affording  a  supply  for  a  lengthened  voyage. 
The  bombs  to  be  fired  from  this  boat  were  of  copper,  and 
varied  from  a  capacity  of  twenty  pounds  of  gunpowder  to 
ten  times  as  much.  They  were  provided  with  a  trigger,  so 
as  to  explode  when  they  struck  their  target.  This  mechan- 
ism was  tested  by  the  destruction  of  a  sloop  during  August, 
1801,  in  the  harbor  of  Brest,  a  bomb  containing  twenty 
pounds  of  powder  being  used.  For  a  whole  summer  Fulton 
pursued  one  British  vessel  after  another  with  this  Nautilus. 
Once  he  came  near  a  seventy- four  gun  frigate,  but  she 
managed  to  escape.  Fulton,  therefore,  received  no  re- 
ward from  France.  This  failure  chilled  the  ardor  of  his 
friends  in  the  French  army  and  navy,  but  it  had  no  effect 
on  his  own  sanguine  spirit. 

He  now  proved  himself  a  man  of  decided  political  incon- 
stancy. Earl  Stanhope  had,  all  along,  kept  himself  in- 
formed regarding  Fulton's  boats  and  torpedoes,  as  suc- 
cessively improved.  In  the  House  of  Lords  he  warned  the 
British  nation  that  Fulton's  weapons  boded  ruin  to  the 


ROBERT  FULTON  51 

British  fleet.  Negotiations  were  accordingly  opened  with 
Fulton,  and  in  September,  1803,  he  was  invited  to  exhibit 
his  inventions  to  officials  of  the  British  Government.  He 
reached  London  on  May  19,  1804,  and  soon  laid  his  plans 
before  Mr.  Pitt,  the  prime  minister,  who  remarked  that  these 
weapons  might  annihilate  every  fleet  in  the  world.  It  was 
proposed  to  pay  Fulton  a  salary  of  two  hundred  pounds, 
about  one  thousand  dollars,  per  month,  and  one-half  the 
value  of  all  the  vessels  that  he  destroyed  within  fourteen 
years,  the  period  of  his  patent.  An  expedition,  including 
a  torpedo  boat  of  Fulton's,  set  sail  against  the  French 
fleet  in  the  harbor  of  Boulogne,  but  without  success.  Ful- 
ton's torpedoes  were  in  perfect  order,  but  they  were  handled 
by  gunners  without  experience  in  their  control.  Shortly 
afterward,  on  October  15,  1805,  Fulton  blew  up  with  tor- 
pedoes a  heavy  brig  at  Walmer  Roads,  near  Mr.  Pitt's 
castle.  Seventy  pounds  of  powder  sufficed,  and  Fulton 
recorded :  "  Exactly  in  fifteen  minutes  from  the  time  of 
drawing  the  peg  and  throwing  the  carcass  (torpedo)  into 
the  water,  the  explosion  took  place.  It  lifted  the  brig  al- 
most bodily,  and  broke  her  in  two.  The  ends  sank  immedi- 
ately, and  nothing  was  seen  but  floating  fragments."  On 
January  23,  1806,  Mr.  Pitt  died,  at  the  early  age  of  forty- 
seven,  and  in  the  ensuing  change  of  ministry,  Fulton's 
friends  were  dispersed.  The  succeeding  government,  un- 
der Lord  Granville,  asked  the  inventor  if  they  might  sup- 
press his  weapons  if  they  wished,  in  case  of  purchase.  His 
refusal  concluded: 

"  At  all  events,  whatever  may  be  your  reward,  I  will 
never  consent  to  let  these  inventions  lie  dormant,  should  my 
country  at  any  time  have  need  of  them.  Were  you  to 
grant  me  an  annuity  of  twenty  thousand  pounds  a  year,  I 
would  sacrifice  all  to  the  safety  and  independence  of  my 
country.  But  I  hope  that  England  and  America  will  un- 
derstand their  mutual  interest  too  well  to  war  with  each 


52  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

other,  and  I  have  no  desire  to  introduce  my  engines  into 
practice  for  the  benefit  of  any  other  nation." 

Fulton,  taking  a  far  look  ahead,  believed  that  his  pro- 
motion of  canals  would  do  much  to  insure  peace,  while  his 
plunging  boats  and  torpedoes,  after  a  single  decisive  battle, 
would  abolish  war.  In  his  "  Thoughts  on  Free  Trade  "  he 
declared : 

"  After  this  (laying  his  views  before  the  Directory  of 
France)  I  was  convinced  that  society  must  pass  through 
ages  of  progressive  improvement,  before  the  freedom  of  the 
seas  could  be  established  by  an  agreement  of  nations  that  it 
was  for  the  good  of  the  whole.  I  saw  that  the  growing 
wealth  and  commerce  of  the  United  States,  and  their  in- 
creasing population,  would  compel  them  to  look  for  a  pro- 
tection by  sea,  and,  perhaps,  drive  them  to  the  necessity 
of  resorting  to  European  measures  by  establishing  a  navy. 
Seeing  this,  I  turned  my  whole  attention  to  finding  out 
means  of  destroying  such  engines  of  oppression  by  some 
method  which  would  put  it  out  of  the  power  of  any  nation 
to  maintain  such  a  system,  and  would  compel  every  gov- 
ernment to  adopt  the  simple  principles  of  education,  in- 
dustry, and  a  free  circulation  of  its  produce." 

Fulton  far  excelled  his  predecessors  in  the  construction 
and  control  of  torpedoes;  and  his  devices  were  the  pre- 
cursors of  the  Lay  and  Howell  torpedoes,  the  Whitehead 
and  other  models.  He  lived,  however,  before  it  was  pos- 
sible to  bring  submarine  warfare  beyond  a  moderate  degree 
of  effectiveness.  In  his  day  electricity  was  unmastered,  and 
its  igniting,  propelling,  and  directive  services  were  un- 
imagined.  Steels,  and  other  strong  and  tough  alloys,  ex- 
isted only  in  qualities  which,  to-day,  are  deemed  weak  and 
inferior.  And  the  explosion  engine,  uniting  high  energy 
with  a  lightness  which  to-day  gives  it  the  freedom  of  the 
skies,  had  not  been  born.  Fulton,  of  course,  could  not 
foresee  these  and  other  modern  resources  of  invention,  or 


ROBERT  FULTON  53 

the  seesaw  which  they  create  betwixt  the  arts  of  attacks  and 
of  defense.  First,  an  armor  is  rolled  of  steel  so  stout  and 
tough  as  to  arrest  the  heaviest  shot.  At  once  projectiles 
are  improved  in  contour,  are  increased  in  weight,  are  built 
of  stronger  alloys,  and  they  pierce  the  armor  easily.  The 
armor  is  now  reinforced  to  a  doubled  resistance,  only  within 
a  few  months  to  face  shot  of  new  penetrating  power.  Tor- 
pedoes are  devised  which  threaten  to  send  every  warship 
of  an  enemy  to  the  ocean  floor.  Very  soon  a  torpedo  de- 
stroyer is  built,  which,  for  a  little  while,  lets  designers  of 
warships  catch  their  breath;  and  so  proceeds  an  unending 
conflict,  as  successive  strides  are  taken  in  the  production  of 
alloys,  in  the  chemistry  of  explosives,  in  the  speed  and 
dirigibility  of  submarine  or  aerial  craft. 

A  word  from  Fulton  himself  should  be  heard  at  this 
point.  In  his  "  Torpedo  War,"  published  in  New  York,  in 
1810,  he  said: 


"  Although  cannon,  firearms,  and  the  whole  detail  of  am- 
munition, now  appear  extremely  simple,  yet  we  here  see 
the  very  slow  advances  to  their  present  state  of  perfection; 
and  they  are  still  improving.  Hence  I  conclude  that  it  is 
now  impossible  to  foresee  to  what  degree  torpedoes  may  be 
improved  and  rendered  useful.  When  Schwartz  invented 
powder,  it  may  be  presumed  that  his  mind  did  not  embrace 
all  its  consequences,  or  p.erceive  that  his  discovery  would 
supersede  the  use  of  catapults,  armor,  bows  and  arrows,  and 
totally  change  the  whole  art  of  war.  He  certainly  could 
have  no  conception  of  such  a  combination  of  art  as  we  now 
see  in  ships  of  the  line ;  those  movable  fortifications,  armed 
with  32-pounders,  and  furnished  with  wings,  to  spread  op- 
pression over  every  part  of  the  ocean,  and  carry  destruc- 
tion to  every  harbor  of  the  earth.  In  consequence  of  the 
invention  of  gunpowder,  ships  of  war  have  been  contrived, 
and  increased  to  their  present  enormous  size  and  number: 
then  may  not  science,  in  her  progress,  point  out  a  means 
by  which  the  application  of  the  violent  explosive  force  of 
gunpowder  shall  destroy  ships  of  war,  and  give  to  the  seas 


54  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

the  liberty  which  shall  secure  perpetual  peace  between  na- 
tions that  are  separated  by  the  ocean?  My  conviction  is 
that  the  means  are  here  developed,  and  require  only  to  be 
organized  and  practised,  to  produce  that  liberty  so  dear  to 
every  rational  and  reflecting  man;  and  there  is  a  grandeur 
in  persevering  to  success  in  so  immense  an  enterprise — so 
well  calculated  to  excite  the  most  vigorous  exertions  of  the 
highest  order  of  intellect,  that  I  hope  to  interest  the  patri- 
otic feelings  of  every  friend  to  America,  to  justice,  and  to 
humanity,  in  so  good  a  cause." 

While  Fulton  had  been  devising  and  improving  his 
plunging  boat  and  torpedoes,  he  had  kept  in  view  the 
building  of  a  steamboat.  Peaceful  commerce  had  as  large  a 
place  in  his  mind  as  the  enginery  of  destruction.  As  a  boy, 
steam  navigation  had  been  brought  to  his  notice  by  a 
neighbor,  William  Henry.  This  inventor,  who  deserves 
more  praise  than  has  fallen  to  his  lot,  in  1763  built  and  suc- 
cessfully worked  a  steamboat.  Soon  after  its  launching,  it 
was  wrecked  by  accident.  Henry  seems  to  have  thought 
the  time  unripe  for  his  enterprise,  so  he  went  no  further 
than  to  construct  a  model  which  embodied  improvements 
on  his  first  design.  Henry  owned  several  of  Benjamin 
West's  pictures,  and  these  attracted  Fulton,  as  a  visitor,  in 
his  boyhood  and  youth.  It  is  altogether  probable  that 
Henry  often  discussed  with  Fulton  the  topic  uppermost  in 
his  own  mind,  that  of  steamboats.  Henry  died  on  Decem- 
ber 15,  1786,  just  about  the  time  that  Fulton  embarked  for 
England. 

William  Henry  had,  among  the  frequent  callers  at  his 
house,  John  Fitch,  a  skilful  mechanic  from  Connecticut, 
who  in  1785  presented  to  the  American  Philosophical  So- 
ciety  of  Philadelphia  a  model  of  a  machine  for  propelling  a 
boat  by  steam.  He  tried  in  vain  to  secure  aid  from  the 
Legislatures  of  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia.  He 
was  more  fortunate  in  New  Jersey,  whose  Legislature 
granted  him  the  exclusive  right  to  build  and  use  any  kind  of 


ROBERT  FULTON  55 

boat  propelled  by  steam  in  the  waters  of  the  State  for  four- 
teen years  from  March  18,  1786.  He  formed  a  joint-stock 
company,  and  proceeded  with  experiments.  On  July  27, 
1786*  he  placed  a  small  boat  or  skiff  on  the  Delaware  River 
propelled  by  oars  moved  by  a  steam  engine.  In  1790  he 
built  another  and  improved  steamer,  which  ran  at  seven 
miles  an  hour.  In  June  of  that  year  it  began  to  ply  as  a 
passenger  boat  between  Philadelphia  and  Trenton.  It  ran 
more  than  two  thousand  miles,  and  never  met  with  an  ac- 
cident. In  1796  or  1797  Fitch  launched  a  small  steamer,  pro- 
pelled by  a  screw,  on  the  Collect,  a  pond  which  occu- 
pied the  present  site  of  the  Tombs  in  Centre  Street,  New 
York. 

James  Rumsey,  also  in  1786,  drove  a  boat  at  four  miles 
an  hour,  employing  a  steam  engine  to  force  water  abaft  in 
an  impelling  stream.  His  feat  was  witnessed,  with  marked 
approval,  by  General  Washington,  on  the  Potomac  at  .Shep- 
herdstown,  Virginia.  But  the  most  memorable  success  at- 
tained by  any  early  inventor  of  steamboats  in  America, 
stands,  as  we  have  already  seen,  to  the  credit  of  John 
Stevens,  of  Hoboken,  New  Jersey.  One  day,  driving  along 
the  bank  of  the  Delaware  River,  he  saw  the  little  steamboat 
of  John  Fitch,  on  its  way  to  Bordentown.  He  resolved  to 
outdo  what  Fitch  had  done.  After  a  long  course  of  ex- 
periment, he  launched  in  1804  and  1805  two  steamboats,  in- 
corporating original  features  of  great  value.  His  boilers 
were  of  sectional  design,  his  engines  were  at  once  compact 
and  strong,  he  employed  steam  at  a  pressure  of  fifty  pounds 
to  the  square  inch,  and  he  adopted  screws  as  his  propellers. 
One  of  his  steamboats,  which  attained  a  speed  of  eight 
miles  an  hour,  had  two  of  these  propellers,  prophetic,  in- 
deed, of  a  modern  ocean  greyhound. 

But  all  this  advance  in  engineering,  all  this  enterprise  in 
commercial  adoption,  seems  to  have  remained  unknown  to 
Fulton.  Ever  since  1786,  he  had  resided  abroad,  and  even 


56  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

the  striking  experiments  with  steamboats  in  Europe  appear 
to  have  long  escaped  his  attention.  In  Paris  he  had  often 
discussed  steamboat  projects  with  Chancellor  Livingston, 
then  Minister  of  the  United  States,  who,  years  before  in 
America,  had  built  steamboats  of  disappointing  slowness, 
although  he  was  aided  by  Mark  Isambard  Brunei,  one  of 
the  most  eminent  engineers  of  his  day.  At  that  time  the 
United  States  had  not  established  its  patent  system,  and 
each  State  could  reward  an  inventor,  or  an  introducer  of 
inventions,  with  a  monopoly  duly  defined  as  to  period  and 
territory.  Livingston  was  offered  by  the  Legislature  of 
New  York  a  monopoly  of  the  steam  navigation  of  the  Hud- 
son River,  on  his  accomplishing  a  successful  voyage  upon 
its  waters.  Fulton,  while  residing  at  Plombieres,  after  pro- 
longed study,  drew  plans  for  his  first  steamboat,  with  a 
view  to  navigation  in  America.  It  occurred  to  him  that  the 
best  form  of  propellers  might  be  chaplets,  small,  square 
floats,  fastened  to  an  endless  belt,  and  kept  in  motion  by  a 
steam  engine.  Tests  with  models  proved  that  paddle-wheels, 
such  as  he  had  turned  by  hand  as  a  boy  on  the  Conestoga, 
were  more  efficient.  He  had  once  used  a  primitive  kind  of 
screw  propeller,  and  for  some  unknown  reason  abandoned  it. 
On  February  16,  1796,  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Edmund  Cartwright: 
"  I  have  just  proved  an  experiment  on  moving  boats,  with 
a  fly  of  four  parts,  very  similar  to  that  of  a  smoke-jack.  I 
find  it  applies  the  power  to  great  advantage,  and  it  is  ex- 
tremely simple."  * 

Chancellor  Robert  R.  Livingston,  who  now  became  Ful- 
ton's equal  partner,  was  one  of  the  leading  publicists  of  his 
time,  so  that  he  brought  to  their  joint  interests  wide  in- 
fluence and  high  prestige.  He  had  been  a  member  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  had  taken  part  in  drafting  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  was  one  of  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and,  as  its  first 

*  Proceedings  Institute  of  Civil  Engineers,  London,  1844. 


ROBERT  FULTON 


57 


Chancellor,  had  administered  to  George  Washington  his 
oath  of  office  at  his  inauguration  in  New  York.  Chancellor 
Livingston,  while  Minister  to  France,  negotiated  the  pur- 
chase of  Louisiana  from  Napoleon.  With  pecuniary  aid 
from  Livingston,  Fulton  completed  his  steamboat,  and 
launched  it  on  the  Seine  early  in  the  spring  of  1803.  Its 
length  of  hull  was  66  feet,  its  beam  8  feet,  its  draught  3 
feet.  Unfortunately,  its  construction  was  flimsy ;  no  sooner 
did  the  machinery  come  on  board,  than  the  hull  broke  in 


WILLIAM  SYMINGTON'S  STEAMBOAT  "CHARLOTTE  DUNDAS" 

In  March,  1802,  ran  through  the  long  reach  of  the  Forth  and 
Clyde  Canal,  against  a  quick  breeze,  tugging  two  vessels,  each  of 
more  than  70  tons'  burden,  completing  19^  miles  in  six  hours. 
When  she  went  by  herself,  she  ran  six  miles  an  hour. 

Her  cylinder  was  22  inches  in  diameter  with  a  stroke  of  four  feet. 

two  and  sank.  The  machinery  was  little  harmed  by  its 
drenching;  the  hull  had  to  be  rebuilt.  In  that  reconstruc- 
tion a  lesson  was  taught  which  American  builders  of  steam 
craft  have  never  forgotten;  their  hulls,  while  light,  are 
always  abundantly  strong.  In  July,  Fulton  floated  his  ves- 
sel once  more;  on  August  9  a  trial  trip  took  place,  at  a 
speed  of  four  and  a  half  miles  an  hour.  This  experiment, 
although  really  epoch-making,  was  regarded  with  indiffer- 
ence by  the  people  of  Paris.  The  steamer  remained  for 
months  on  the  Seine,  near  the  palace,  without  calling  forth 


58  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

any  remark.  One  feature  of  its  equipment  was  noteworthy, 
— a  water-tube  boiler,  patented  by  Barlow  in  France,  and 
affording  so  extended  a  surface  to  the  fire  that  steam 
was  raised  with  a  new  rapidity. 

In  May,  1804,  when  Fulton  was  in  England,  on  behalf  of 
his  plunging  boat  and  torpedoes,  news  came  to  him  of  the 
steamboats  of  William  Symington.  The  first  of  these  boats 
had  demonstrated  its  success  in  1788;  in  the  following  year 
a  better  designed  steamer  had  attained  a  still  quicker  pace. 
A  third  steamboat,  the  Charlotte  Dundas,  had,  in  1802, 
reached  a  speed  of  six  miles  an  hour  on  the  Forth  and 
Clyde  Canal.  This  crowning  feat  aroused  interest  through- 
out Great  Britain,  and  Symington  was  asked  by  the  Duke 
of  Bridgewater  to  design  steam  vessels  to  ply  on  his  canal. 
Fulton  saw  at  once  that  Symington  had  surpassed  his  own 
achievements,  so  he  called  on  the  Scottish  inventor  in  quest 
of  information.  Symington's  account  of  the  visit  appears  in 
J.  Scott  Russel's  "  Steam  and  Steam  Navigation": 

"  I  caused  the  engine  fire  to  be  lighted  up,  and  in  a  short 
time  thereafter  put  the  steamboat  in  motion,  and  carried  him 
from  Lock  No.  16  (of  the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal),  where 
the  boat  then  lay,  four  miles  west  of  the  canal,  and  re- 
turned to  the  place  of  starting,  in  eighty  minutes,  to  the 
great  astonishment  of  Mr.  Fulton  and  several  gentlemen 
who  at  the  outset  chanced  to  come  on  board. 

"  During  the  trip  Mr.  Fulton  asked  if  I  had  any  objec- 
tions to  his  taking  notes  respecting  the  steamboat,  to  which 
question  I  said — none;  as  I  considered  the  more  publicity 
that  was  given  to  any  discovery  intended  for  the  general 
good,  so  much  the  better ;  and  having  the  privilege  secured 
by  letters-patent,  I  was  not  afraid  of  his  making  any  en- 
croachment upon  my  right  in  the  British  Dominions, 
though  in  the  United  States,  I  was  well  aware,  I  had  no 
power  of  control.  In  consequence,  he  pulled  out  a  memo- 
randum-book, and,  after  putting  several  pointed  questions 
respecting  the  general  construction  and  effect  of  the  ma- 
chine, which  I  answered  in  a  most  explicit  manner,  he  jot- 


ROBERT  FULTON  59 

ted  down  particularly  everything  then  described,  with  his 
own  remarks  upon  the  boat,  while  moving  with  him  on 
board,  along  the  canal ;  but  he  seems  to  have  been  altogether 
forgetful  of  this,  as,  notwithstanding  his  fair  promises,  I 
never  heard  anything  more  of  him  till  reading  in  a  news- 
paper an  account  of  his  death." 

Fulton  must  have  been  chagrined  to  discover  that, 
through  sheer  ignorance  of  what  Symington  had  accom- 
plished years  before,  his  own  plans  for  a  steamboat  had  been 
misdirected  and  were,  indeed,  wholly  forestalled.  Even  in 
those  days  of  slow  mails,  of  belated  publication,  it  seems  in- 
explicable that  Fulton,  until  his  return  to  England,  did  not 
know  of  experiments  so  decisive  as  those  of  Symington. 
Fulton,  we  must  remember,  lived  in  the  chief  city  of  con- 
tinental Europe,  where  he  was  constantly  meeting  many  of 
the  best  informed  men  of  his  time.  His  later  services,  on 
behalf  of  steam  navigation,  did  much  toward  making  impos- 
sible a  repetition  of  so  costly  an  ignorance.  As  Fulton's 
negotiations  with  the  British  Government  for  submarine 
warfare  gradually  drifted  into  failure,  he  saw  that  his 
future  career  lay  in  launching  steamboats  on  American 
waters.  With  characteristic  promptness  he  proceeded  to 
his  drawing-board,  to  complete  a  design  at  the  earliest 
feasible  moment.  For  motive  power  he  ordered  a  steam 
engine  from  Boulton  &  Watt,  of  Birmingham,  its  price  be- 
ing £548  ($2,670).  Soon  afterward,  in  October,  1806,  he 
sailed  from  Falmouth,  reaching  New  York  two  months 
later.  His  drawings  were  forthwith  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Charles  Brown,  a  shipbuilder  at  Corlears  Hook,  on  the 
East  River  side  of  New  York.  While  the  hull  was  still 
unfinished,  Fulton  and  Livingston  ran  out  of  funds.  To 
John  Stevens,  of  Hoboken,  a  brother-in-law  of  Livingston's, 
who  had  operated  steamboats  with  success,  they  offered  a 
third  interest  in  their  venture  if  he  would  come  to  their 
aid.  He  said  no,  as  he  disapproved  Fulton's  design.  On 


6o 


LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


another  occasion  Fulton  was  so  hard  pressed  for  cash  that 
he  spent  a  whole  evening  trying  to  persuade  a  friend  to 
advance  him  $1,000.  All  in  vain.  Next  day  he  resumed 
his  plea;  his  friend  proffered  $100  as  a  loan,  provided  that 
the  remaining  $900  could  be  borrowed  without  delay. 
These  loans  were  at  length  effected,  but  all  the  lenders  stip- 
ulated that  their  names  be  withheld,  dreading  the  ridicule 
which  would  attach  to  so  foolhardy  an  experiment  as  steam- 
boating.  Fulton  narrated  to  a  friend  the  continuing  dis- 
favor of  the  New  York  public :  "  When  I  was  building  my 
first  steamboat,  the  project  was  viewed  by  the  public  either 


MACHINERY  OF  FULTON'S  STEAMBOAT  "CLERMONT,"  1807 

with  indifference,  or  with  contempt,  as  a  visionary  scheme. 
My  friends,  indeed,  were  civil,  but  they  were  shy.  They 
listened  with  patience  to  my  explanations,  but  with  a  set- 
tled cast  of  incredulity  on  their  countenances.  As  I  had 
occasion  daily  to  pass  to  and  from  the  shipyard  while  my 
boat  was  in  progress,  I  have  often  loitered  unknown  near 
the  idle  groups  of  strangers,  gathering  in  little  circles,  and 
heard  various  inquiries  as  to  the  object  of  this  new  vehicle. 
The  language  was  uniformly  that  of  scorn,  sneer,  or  ridi- 
cule. The  loud  laugh  often  rose  at  my  expense;  the  dry 
jest;  the  wise  calculation  of  losses  and  expenditures;  the 
dull  but  endless  repetition  of  '  Fulton's  Folly.'  Never  did 


ROBERT  FULTON  61 

a  single  encouraging  remark,  a  bright  hope,  a  warm  wish, 
cross  my  path.  Silence  itself  was  but  politeness,  veiling  its 
doubts,  or  hiding  its  reproaches." 

Chancellor  Livingston's  estate  on  the  Hudson  was  called 
Clermont,  and  its  name  was  bestowed  on  Fulton's  steam- 
boat. The  Clermont,  duly  launched  and  equipped,  started 
from  New  York  on  August  17,  1807,  for  her  first  trip  to  Al- 
bany. Fulton  thus  narrated  the  journey: 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  American  Citizen. 

"  SIR — I  arrived  this  afternoon  at  four  o'clock,  in  the 
steamboat  from  Albany.  As  the  success  of  my  experiment 
gives  me  great  hopes  that  such  boats  may  be  of  great  im- 
portance to  my  country,  to  prevent  erroneous  opinions,  and 
give  some  satisfaction  to  the  friends  of  useful  improve- 
ments, you  will  have  the  goodness  to  publish  the  following 
statement  of  facts. 

"  I  left  New  York  on  Monday,  at  one  o'clock,  and  arrived 
at  Clermont,  the  seat  of  Chancellor  Livingston,  at  one 
o'clock  on  Tuesday — time,  twenty-four  hours — distance  no 
miles.  On  Wednesday  I  departed  from  the  Chancellor's,  at 
nine  in  the  morning,  and  arrived  at  Albany  at  five  in  the 
afternoon — distance  forty  miles,  time  eight  hours.  The 
sum  is  150  miles  in  32  hours,  equal  to  nearly  five  miles  an 
hour.  On  Thursday  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  I  left 
Albany  and  arrived  at  the  Chancellor's  at  six  in  the  even- 
ing. I  started  thence  at  seven,  and  arrived  in  New  York 
at  four  in  the  afternoon,  time  thirty  hours,  equal  to  five 
miles  an  hour.  Throughout  my  whole  way,  going  and 
returning,  the  wind  was  ahead :  no  advantage  could  be  de- 
rived from  my  sails:  the  whole  has,  therefore,  been  per- 
formed by  the  power  of  the  steam  engine." 

The  Clermont  was  150  feet  long,  13  feet  beam,  and  7 
feet  in  depth  of  hold.  Her  tonnage  was  about  100.  The 
engine  cylinder  was  of  24-inch  diameter,  and  4  feet  stroke. 
The  boiler  was  20  feet  long,  7  feet  high,  and  8  feet  wide. 
After  her  first  season,  encouraged  by  financial  success,  the 
Clermont  was  strengthened  throughout  and  widened  to  18 


62 


LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


ROBERT  FULTON  63 

feet,  while  her  engine  was  improved  from  plans  furnished 
by  Fulton.  Two  more  boats,  the  Raritan  and  the  Car  of 
Neptune,  were  added  to  the  Clermont,  establishing  the  first 
regular  line  of  steamboats  in  the  world,  some  years  in  ad- 
vance of  similar  lines  in  Europe.  The  Legislature  of  New 
York  extended  its  monopoly  to  Fulton  and  Livingston, 
adding  five  years  for  each  new  boat  of  their  line,  up  to  a 
limit  of  thirty  years. 

A  ferry  service  from  New  York  to  Jersey  City  followed, 
after  considerable  delay.  In  March,  1811,  Elisha  Boudinot 
and  other  citizens  of  Newark  subscribed'  $50,000  for  a 
steam  ferry  between  Jersey  City  and  New  York,  and  Fulton 
was  requested  to  design  the  required  boats,  two  in  number. 
They  were  constructed  by  Charles  Brown,  the  builder  of  the 
Clermont,  and  on  July  2,  1812,  one  of  them,  the  Jersey, 
crossed  the  North  River,  beginning  her  regular  trips  fifteen 
days  later.  Fulton  thus  described  her :  "  She  is  built  of  two 
boats,  each  of  10  feet  beam,  and  5  feet  deep  in  the  hold: 
which  boats  are  distant  from  each  other  10  feet,  confined 
by  strong  transverse  beam  knees  and  diagonal  braces,  form- 
ing a  deck  30  feet  wide  and  80  feet  long.  The  propelling 
water-wheel  is  placed  between  the  boats  to  prevent  it  from 
injury  from  ice  and  shock  on  entering  and  approaching  the 
dock.  The  whole  of  the  machinery  being  placed  between 
the  two  boats,  leaves  10  feet  on  the  deck  of  one  boat  for 
carriages,  horses,  and  cattle ;  the  other,  having  neat  benches, 
covered  with  an  awning,  is  for  passengers,  and  there  is  also 
a  passage  and  stairway  to  a  neat  cabin,  which  is  50  feet 
long  and  5  feet  clear  from  the  floor  to  the  beams,  fur- 
nished with  benches  and  provided  with  a  stove  in  winter. 
Although  the  two  boats  and  the  space  between  them  give 
30  feet  beam,  yet  they  present  sharp  bows  to  the  water,  and 
have  only  the  resistance  in  the  water  of  one  boat  twenty 
feet  beam.  Both  ends  being  alike,  and  each  having  a  rud- 
der, she  never  puts  about." 


64  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

In  1813,  the  York,  a  sister-vessel  to  the  Jersey,  was 
launched  and  placed  in  service.  These  boats  ran  every  half 
hour  during  the  day,  accomplishing  their  trip  of  a  mile 
and  a  half  in  fifteen  minutes.  This  was  the  first  permanent 
steam  ferry  ever  established.  Brooklyn,  during  ,1813,  was 
joined  to  New  York  by  a  similar  service. 

Fulton  was  well  aware  of  the  golden  harvest  that  steam- 
boats would  reap  in  America,  especially  in  the  Western 
States,  then  fast  coming  under  the  plow.  To  his  old  and 
faithful  ally,  Joel  Barlow,  residing  near  Washington,  he 
wrote  : 

"  My  steamboat  voyage  to  Albany  and  back  turned  out 
rather  more  favorably  than  I  had  calculated.  The  distance 
from  New  York  to  Albany  is  150  miles.  I  ran  it  up  in 
thirty-two  hours,  and  down  in  thirty.  I  had  a  light  breeze 
against  me  the  whole  way,  both  going  and  coming,  and  the 
voyage  has  been  performed  wholly  by  the  power  of  the 
steam  engine.  I  overtook  many  sloops  and  schooners,  beat- 
ing to  the  windward,  and  parted  with  them  as  if  they  had 
been  at  anchor.  The  power  of  propelling  boats  by  steam 
is  now  fully  proved.  The  morning  I  left  New  York,  there 
were  not,  perhaps,  thirty  persons  in  the  city  who  believed 
that  the  boat  would  ever  move  one  mile  an  hour,  or  be  of  the 
least  utility,  and,  while  we,  were  putting  off  from  the  wharf, 
which  was  crowded  with  spectators,  I  heard  a  number  of 
sarcastic  remarks.  This  is  the  way  ignorant  men  compli- 
ment what  they  call  philosophers  and  projectors.  Having 
employed  much  time,  money,  and  zeal  in  accomplishing  this 
work,  it  gives  me,  as  it  will  you,  great  pleasure  to  see  it 
fully  answer  my  expectations.  It  will  give  a  cheap  and 
quick  conveyance  to  the  merchandise  on  the  Mississippi, 
Missouri,  and  other  great  rivers,  which  are  now  laying  open 
their  treasures  to  the  enterprise  of  our  countrymen;  and 
although  the  prospect  of  personal  emolument  has  been 
some  inducement  to  me,  yet  I  feel  infinitely  more  pleasure 
in  reflecting  on  the  immense  advantage  that  my  country  will 
derive  from  the  invention." 

During  the  winter  of  1807-08,  the  Clermont,  as  virtually 
rebuilt,  was  named  the  North  River;  she  made  regular  trips 


ROBERT  FULTON  65 

on  the  Hudson  for  several  years.  Fulton  wrote  to  Charles 
Wilson  Peale,  the  portrait  painter,  regarding  the  enlarged 
boat: 

"  CLERMONT,  N.  Y.,  June  n,  1808. 

"  My  steamboat  is  now  in  complete  operation  and  works 
much  to  my  satisfaction,  making  the  voyages  from  New 
York  to  Albany,  150  miles,  on  an  average  of  35  hours.  She 
has  three  excellent  cabins,  or,  rather,  rooms,  contained  54 
berths,  with  kitchen,  larder,  pantry,  bar,  and  steward's  room. 
Passengers  have  been  encouraging.  Last  Saturday  she 
started  from  New  York  with  seventy,  which  is  doing  very 
well  for  these  times,  when  trade  has  not  its  usual  activity." 

Some  of  the  regulations  posted  on  this  steamboat  quaintly 
tell  of  manners  and  customs  a  century  ago  in  America: 

"  Way-passengers,  who  are  not  out  for  more  than  half  the 
night,  are  not  entitled  to  lie  down  in  a  berth. 

"  As  the  comfort  of  all  passengers  must  be  considered, 
cleanliness,  neatness,  and  order  are  necessary.  It  is,  there- 
fore, not  permitted  that  any  persons  shall  smoke  in  the 
ladies'  cabin,  or  in  the  great  cabin,  under  a  penalty,  first  of 
$1.50,  and  50  cents  for  each  half  hour  they  offend  against 
this  rule;  the  money  to  be  spent  in  wine  for  the  company. 

"  It  is  not  permitted  for  any  person  to  lie  down  in  a  berth 
with  their  boots  or  shoes  on,  under  penalty  of  $1.50  and 
50  cents  for  every  half  hour  they  may  offend  against  this 
rule. 

"  In  the  ladies'  cabin,  in  the  great  cabin,  cards  and  all 
games  are  to  cease  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening,  that  those 
persons  who  wish  to  sleep  might  not  be  disturbed." 

Before  the  death  of  Fulton,  in  1815,  he  had  built  sev- 
enteen boats,  which  included  the  first  steam  war  frigate, 
the  first  torpedo-boat,  and  the  first  steam  ferry-boats,  trie 
latter  equipped  with  rounded  ends  for  approach  at  either 
shore,  and  floating  docks  to  receive  them.  At  the  time  of 
Fulton's  death,  the  steamboat  The  Emperor  of  Russia  was 
under  construction  for  the  Russian  Government.  The  en- 


66  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

terprise  was  postponed,  and  was  afterward  taken  up  by 
other  contractors. 

Fulton's  steamboat  project  had  not  wholly  allured  him 
from  his  long  cherished  plans  of  submarine  warfare. 
Shortly  after  his  return  to  America  he  offered  his  tor- 
pedoes to  the  Federal  Government  at  Washington,  main- 
taining that  "  in  the  hands  of  a  righteous  nation,  they 
would  insure  universal  peace."  Fulton  had  a  warm  friend 
in  President  Jefferson,  whose  interest  in  applied  science  was 
second  only  to  his  devotion  to  the  duties  of  government. 
Largely  at  the  instance  of  the  President,  Fulton  was  given 
an  opportunity  to  prove  the  value  of  his  torpedoes.  Gov- 
ernor's Island,  a  mile  from  the  Battery  at  the  foot  of  Man- 
hattan Island,  was  granted  him  for  his  tests.  He  invited 
the  magistracy  of  New  York  and  a  party  of  citizens  to 
witness  his  torpedoes  at  work.  While  he  was  explaining 
their  mechanism,  his  auditors  crowded  round  him  with  a 
discommoding  effect.  He  pointed  to  a  copper  case,  stand- 
ing under  the  gateway  close  by,  to  which  was  attached  a 
clockwork  lock.  This  he  set  in  motion  with  the  remark: 
"  Gentlemen,  this  is  a  charged  torpedo,  with  which,  pre- 
cisely in  its  present  state,  I  mean  to  blow  up  a  vessel.  It 
contains  170  pounds  of  powder,  and  if  I  would  let  the 
clockwork  run  fifteen  minutes,  I  doubt  not  that  this  fortifica- 
tion would  be  blown  to  atoms."  The  circle  around  Fulton 
was  enlarged  in  a  twinkling,  and  before  five  of  his  fifteen 
minutes  had  elapsed,  there  were  not  more  than  two  spec- 
tators within  sight  of  the  speaker.  Much  more  striking 
than  any  feat  of  that  afternoon  was  his  destruction,  by  a 
torpedo,  on  July  20,  1807,  of  a  large  hulk  brig  in  the  harbor 
of  New  York.  He  was  ever  a  severe  critic  of  his  own 
plans,  and  this  success  only  led  him  to  imagine  improve- 
ments in  construction  and  control,  which  he  did  not  live 
to  complete. 

He  had  derived  his  idea  of  torpedoes  from  David  Bush- 


ROBERT  FULTON  67 

nell :  another  weapon  of  attack  was  original  with  himself. 
This  was  ordnance  used  under  water  instead  of,  as  usual, 
through  the  air.  Ericsson,  in  his  Destroyer,  developed  Ful- 
ton's scheme  much  further  than  was  possible  with  the  scant 
resources  at  his  predecessor's  command.  To  ex-President 
Jefferson,  Fulton  sent  a  long  letter  describing  his  experi- 
ments in  submarine  gunnery,  with  penciled  sketches,  con- 
cluding: 

"  Instead  of  having  the  cannon  and  portholes  of  a  war- 
ship, as  usual,  above  the  surface  of  the  water,  I  place  my 
cannon  so  low  in  the  vessel  that  their  portholes  will  be  be- 
low the  surface  of  the  water,  from  six  inches  to  ten  feet 
or  more.  Thus  the  cannon,  being  fired  with  its  muzzle 
under  water,  the  bullets  will  pass  through  the  water  in- 
stead of  the  air,  and  through  the  sides  of  the  enemy,  from 
one  to  ten  feet  below  the  waterline,  which,  letting  in  the 
water  in  quantity,  will  sink  the  vessel  attacked." 

All  this  may  be  found,  with  much  else,  in  his  book,  "  Tor- 
pedo War."  In  the  course  of  a  letter  to  the  Hon.  Paul 
Hamilton,  Secretary  of  the  United  States  Navy,  Fulton 
said  on  February  i,  1811 : 

"  It  is  proved  and  admitted,  first,  that  the  waterproof 
locks  will  ignite  gunpowder  under  water ;  secondly,  it  is 
proved  that  seventy  pounds  of  powder,  exploded  under  the 
bottom  of  a  vessel  of  two  hundred  tons,  will  blow  her  up; 
hence  it  is  admitted,  that  if  a  sufficient  quantity  of  powder, 
which,  I  believe,  need  not  be  more  than  two  hundred  pounds, 
be  ignited  beneath  the  bottom  of  a  first-rate  man-of-war,  it 
would  instantly  destroy  her;  thirdly,  it  is  proved  and  ad- 
mitted that  a  gun  can  be  fired  under  water,  and  that  a 
cable  of  any  size  can  be  cut  by  that  means,  at  any  required 
depth.  With  these  immediately  important  principles  ap- 
proved and  admitted,  the  question  naturally  occurs,  whether 
there  be,  within  the  genius  of  inventive  faculties  of  man,  the 
means  of  placing  a  torpedo  under  a  ship  in  defiance  of  her 
powers  of  resistance.  He  who  says  there  is  not,  and  that 


68  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

consequently  torpedoes  can  never  be  made  useful,  must,  of 
course,  believe  that  he  has  penetrated  to  the  limits  of  man's 
inventive  powers,  and  that  he  has  contemplated  all  the  com- 
binations and  arrangements  which  present  or  future  in- 
genuity can  devise  to  place  a  torpedo  under  a  ship.  .  .  . 

"  Of  the  anchored  torpedoes,  I  have  had  the  pleasure  to 
show  you  the  improvements  I  have  made  on  these  since 
the  meeting  of  the  committee  in  New  York  last  fall,  to  give 
them  stability  under  water,  or  to  take  them  up  or  put  them 
down  when  necessary.  There  is  a  very  simple  mode  to 
convince  any  unbeliever  of  the  advantage  which  this  kind 
of  engine  will  present,  and  the  respect  for  our  harbors 
which  it  will  create  in  the  mind  of  an  enemy :  let  me  put  one 
under  water,  and  they  who  do  not  believe  in  its  effect  may 
put  their  confidence  to  the  proof  by  sailing  over  it. 

"  A  compound  engine  of  this  kind  will  cost  from  $800 
to  $1,000:  320  of  them  could  be  made  for  the  first  cost  of 
one  ship  of  54  guns ;  of  these,  say,  100  should  protect  New 
York;  100,  Boston;  100,  Charleston;  20  to  be  placed  in  the 
Delaware  between  its  forts  or  batteries.  Thus  four  ports 
could  be  guarded  so  as  to  render  it  impossible  for  an 
enemy's  ships  to  enter  any  of  them,  unless  first  they  had 
strength  to  take  possession  of  the  land  and  forts,  and  then 
time  deliberately  to  search  for  the  torpedoes.  Yet  one  ship 
of  54  guns  cannot  guard  one  port  against  one  74-gun  ship, 
although  the  first  cost  of  that  vessel  in  anchored  torpedoes 
would  guard  at  least  three  ports  against  ten  ships  of  74  guns. 
In  commission  a  54-gun  ship  costs  to  maintain  $100,000  a 
year ;  this,  at  five  per  cent.,  represents  two  million  dollars 
in  capital.  ...  I  do  not  mean  to  object  to  ships  to  protect 
our  coast;  but  when  considered  for  harbor  defense,  or  for 
aiding  forts  or  batteries  to  defend  harbors,  the  money  can 
be  better  expended  in  torpedoes." 

Commodore  Rodgers  was  an  unsparing  critic  of  Fulton's 
torpedoes  and  submarine  boats.  He  said,  referring  to  a 
figure  of  one  of  these  boats : 

"  I  leave  the  reader  to  make  his  own  conclusions,  and  to 
judge  whether  such  torpid,  unwieldy,  six-feet-sided,  six- 
inch-decked,  fifteen-sixteenth-sunk-water  dungeons,  are  cal- 


ROBERT  FULTON  69 

culated  to  supersede  the  necessity  of  a  navy,  particularly 
when  the  men  who  manage  them  are  confined  to  the  limits 
of  their  holds,  which  will  be  under  water,  and  in  as  perfect 
darkness  as  if  shut  up  in  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta." 

No  opposition,  however  severe,  could  for  a  moment  check 
Fulton  in  his  endeavor  to  bring  submarine  warfare  to  suc- 
cess. Golden,  his  biographer,  thus  describes  a  submarine 
boat  which  was  projected  during  the  closing  days  of  Ful- 
ton's life : 

"  He  contrived  a  vessel  which  was  to  have  a  capacity,  by 
means  of  an  air-chamber  like  that  on  board  the  Nautilus, 
to  be  kept  at  a  greater  or  less  depth  in  the  water,  but  so 
that  her  deck  should  not  be  submerged.  That  chamber 
communicated  with  the  water,  and  was  shaped  like  a  diving- 
bell  ;  but  it  could  at  pleasure,  by  an  air-pump,  be  exhausted 
of  air,  and  then  would  fill  with  water ;  or,  any  required  quan- 
tity of  air  could  be  forced  into  it,  so  as  to  expel  the  -water 
from  it  entirely.  The  sides  of  the  vessel  were  to  be  of 
ordinary  thickness,  but  her  deck  was  to  be  stout  and  plated 
with  iron,  so  as  to  render  it  ball-proof,  which  would  not  re- 
quire so  much  strength  as  might  at  first  be  imagined,  be- 
cause, as  no  shot  could  strike  it  from  a  vessel  but  at  a  very 
great  angle,  the  ball  would  ricochet  on  a  slight  resistance 
from  a  hard  substance.  She  was  of  a  size  to  shelter  a  hun- 
dred men  under  her  deck,  and  was  to  be  moved  by  a  wheel 
placed  in  another  air-chamber  near  the  stern,  so  that  when 
the  vessel  was  to  be  propelled  only  a  part  of  the  under- 
paddles  should  be  in  the  water;  at  least,  the  upper  half, 
or  more,  moving  in  the  air.  The  wheel  was  to  be  turned  by 
a  crank  attached  to  a  shaft,  that  should  penetrate  the  stern 
to  the  air-chamber  through  a  stuffing-box,  and  run  along 
the  middle  of  the  boat  until  it  approached  her  bows. 
Through  this  shaft  rungs  were  to  be  passed,  of  which  the 
crew  were  to  take  hold  as  they  were  seated  upon  each  side 
of  it  on  benches.  By  merely  pushing  the  shaft  forward 
and  backward  the  water-wheel  would  be  turned,  and  the 
boat  propelled.  By  means  of  the  air-chamber,  she  was  to 
be  kept,  when  not  in  hostile  action,  upon  the  surface,  as  com- 
mon boats  are ;  but  when  in  reach  of  an  enemy,  she  was  to 


70  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

sink,  so  that  nothing  but  her  deck  would  be  exposed  to 
his  view  or  to  his  fire.  Her  motion  in  this  situation  would 
be  perfectly  silent,  and  therefore  he  called  this  contrivance  a 
mute.  His  design  was  that  she  should  approach  an  enemy, 
which  he  supposed  she  might  do  in  fogs  or  in  the  night, 
without  being  heard  or  discovered,  and  do  execution  by 
means  of  his  torpedoes  or  submarine  guns.  He  presented  a 
model  of  this  vessel  to  the  Government,  by  which  it  was  ap- 
proved. Under  authority  of  the  Executive  he  commenced 
building  one  in  the  port  of  New  York.  Before  the  hull  was 
finished,  his  country  had  to  lament  his  death,  and  the 
mechanics  he  had  employed  were  incapable  of  proceeding 
without  him." 

Reigate,  a  later  biographer  than  Golden,  says  that  Ful- 
ton derived  from  nature  a  hint  for  his  submersible,  being 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  pneumatic  machinery  by 
which  fishes  rise  to  the  surface  or  lie  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea.  This  he  imitated  in  the  expansions  and  contractions 
of  a  large  reservoir  of  air. 

Fulton  was  an  engineer  in  his  every  fiber.  In  1802  he  ex- 
amined the  patent  of  M.  Des  Blancs  for  a  steamboat ;  in  his 
notebook  he  jotted  down  a  criticism : 

"  This  imperfection  of  plan  makes  me  believe  that  M.  Des 
Blancs  has  not  found  the  proportion  which  his  paddles 
should  bear  to  the  bow  of  the  boat,  or  the  velocity  which 
they  should  run  in  proportion  to  the  velocity  which  the  boat 
is  intended  to  go.  Consequently,  if  he  has  not  known  the 
proportions  and  the  velocities  he  has  not  mounted  or  de- 
posited a  description  by  which  an  artist  could  construct 
a  boat  to  go  any  given  number  of  miles  an  hour,  nor,  in 
fact,  has  he  shown  the  means  of  constructing  a  boat  which 
can  be  of  use.  He  has  left  the  proportions  and  velocities  to 
be  discovered.  He  has  not  given  any  rule  to  make  a  boat 
of  any  given  dimensions,  go  any  given  distance  in  a  given 
time,  and  he  has  not  as  yet  mounted  a  boat  to  navigate  by 
steam  in  such  manner  as  to  be  of  use  to  society;  for  this 
invention  to  be  rendered  useful  does  not  consist  in  putting 
oars,  paddles,  wheels,  or  resisting  chains  in  motion  by  a 


ROBERT  FULTON  71 

steam  engine — but  it  consists  in  showing  in  a  clear  and 
distinct  manner  that  it  is  desired  to  drive  a  boat  precisely 
any  given  number  of  miles  an  hour — what  must  be  the  size 
of  the  cylinder  and  the  velocity  of  the  piston?  What  must 
be  the  size  and  velocity  of  the  resisting  chains?  All  these 
things  being  governed  by  the  laws  of  Nature,  the  real  In- 
vention is  to  find  them.  Till  the  artist  knows  the  necessary 
proportions  to  this  and  all  other  sized  boats,  he  must  work 
in  the  dark  and  to  great  uncertainty,  and  can  not  be  said 
to  have  made  any  clear  and  distinct  discovery  or  useful  in- 
vention." 

Fulton's  mind  was  crystal  clear  in  seeing  that  a  plan 
should  proceed  on  trustworthy  weighing  and  measuring,  on 
the  precise  adaptation  of  means  to  ends.  In  minor  mat- 
ters, too,  his  perceptions  were  unusually  keen,  and  he 
backed  them  with  a  courage  that  made  him  a  terror  to 
humbugs.  In  1813  a  German  immigrant,  Wilhelm  Red- 
heffer,  exhibited  in  New  York  a  machine  which  he  boasted 
as  a  "  perpetual  motion."  Fulton  went  to  see  this  marvel ; 
he  no  sooner  heard  the  throb  of  the  apparatus  than  he  ex- 
claimed, "  Why,  this  is  a  crank  motion."  Had  the  rotation 
been  due  to  a  real  "  perpetual  motion,"  this  inequality  of 
throb  would  not  have  been  heard.  Fulton  called  the  show- 
man an  impostor ;  knocking  away  some  thin  laths  which 
joined  the  frame  of  the  machine  to  the  wall,  he  exposed  a 
strip  of  moving  catgut  which  turned  the  "  perpetual  mo- 
tion." Following  up  the  catgut,  he  reached  a  back-loft. 
There  sat  the  explanation  of  the  mystery  in  the  person  of  a 
poor  old  wretch  gnawing  a  crust  the  while  he  turned  a 
crank.  The  proprietor  of  the  show  disappeared,  as  a  mob 
of  defrauded  patrons  smashed  his  machinery  in  pieces. 

In  1812,  when  the  United  States  declared  war  with 
Great  Britain,  the  mind  of  Fulton  at  once  reverted  to  his 
long-pondered  plans  for  naval  offense  and  defense.  In 
March,  1814,  Congress  authorized  him  to  supervise  the 
building  of  the  first  steam  vessel  of  war  ever  constructed. 


72  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

This  vessel,  the  Demologos,  or  Fulton  the  First,  was 
launched,  without  her  equipment,  on  October  29,  1814, 
from  the  yard  of  Adam  &  Noah  Brown  on  the  East  River, 
New  York.  She  had  two  hulls,  66  feet  in  length,  with  a 
channel  between,  15  feet  in  width,  for  a  paddle-wheel.  Her 
parapet  was  4  feet  10  inches  wide;  she  had  portholes  for 
thirty  32-pounder  guns;  two  bowsprits  and  jibs;  two  masts; 
and  four  rudders,  one  at  each  end  of  both  hulls.  On  Febru- 
ary 17,  1815,  six  days  before  Fulton's  death,  peace  with 
Great  Britain  was  declared.  Three  months  afterward  the 
engine  of  Fulton  the  First  was  reared,  and  on  the  fourth 
of  July  following,  the  vessel  made  a  passage  to  the  ocean 
and  back,  a  distance  of  53  miles,  in  8  hours  and  20  minutes. 
For  many  years  Fulton's  heirs  sought  payment  from  Con- 
gress for  his  services  as  engineer  of  this  ship,  for  fees  as  a 
patentee,  and  for  outlays.  In  1846,  thirty-one  years  after 
his  death,  this  debt,  $76,300,  was  paid. 

It  was  in  the  very  prime  of  his  activity  that  the  career 
of  this  great  man  came  to  a  close.  In  January,  1815,  he 
testified  at  Trenton,  in  a  suit  which  sought  to  repeal  laws 
which  interfered  with  the  plying  of  ferryboats  between  the 
New  Jersey  shore  and  New  York  City.  The  weather  was 
stormy,  and  Fulton,  whose  lungs  had  for  years  been  weak, 
took  a  severe  cold.  He  returned  home,  and  gradually  sank 
until  February  23,  when  he  breathed  his  last.  He  left  a 
wife,  nee  Harriet  Livingston,  a  son,  and  three  daughters. 
His  burial  took  place  next  day,  from  his  residence,  2  Mar- 
ketfield  Street,  now  Battery  Place,  in  the  rear  of  i  Broad- 
way, to  Trinity  Church.  His  remains  were  interred  in  the 
adjoining  churchyard,  in  a  vault  belonging  to  the  Liv- 
ingston family.  Above  that  vault  a  handsome  memorial, 
with  a  medallion  portrait,  was,  in  1901,  reared  by  the 
American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers. 

Fulton's  biographer,  Cadwallader  B.  Colden,  who  knew 
him  well,  thus  describes  him: 


ROBERT  FULTON  73 

"  Fulton  was  about  six  feet  high.  His  person  was  slen- 
der, but  well  proportioned  and  well  formed.  Nature  had 
made  him  a  gentleman  and  bestowed  upon  him  ease  and 
gracefulness.  He  had  too  much  good  sense  for  the  least 
affectation.  A  modest  confidence  in  his  own  worth  and  tal- 
ents gave  him  an  unembarrassed  deportment  in  all  com- 
panies. His  features  were  strong  and  of  manly  beauty.  He 
had  large  dark  eyes,  and  a  projecting  brow  expressive  of  in- 
telligence and  thought.  His  temper  was,  mild,  his  disposi- 
tion lively.  He  was  fond  of  society,  which  he  always  en- 
livened by  cheerful,  cordial  manners,  and  instructed  or 
pleased  by  his  sensible  conversation.  He  expressed  him- 
self with  energy,  fluency,  and  correctness,  and,  as  he  owed 
more  to  his  own  experience  and  reflections  than  to  books,  his 
sentiments  were  often  interesting  from  their  originality." 


Fulton  won  his  laurels  chiefly  by  his  introduction  of  the 
steamboat — invented,  as  we  have  seen,  by  engineers  in 
Scotland  and  America  long  before  his  experiments.  His 
alliance  with  Livingston,  who  held  a  monopoly  from  the 
State  of  New  York,  gave  him  an  advantage  as  a  pioneer 
of  which  he  availed  himself  ably  and  boldly.  As  an  in- 
ventor and  improver  of  weapons  of  war,  Fulton  rose  to 
the  front  rank,  and  here  he  borrowed  only  to  restore  a 
hundredfold.  The  torpedo,  devised  by  David  Bushnell,  in 
Fulton's  designs  became  an  instrument  wholly  new.  He 
improved  plunging  boats  in  every  detail  of  their  construc- 
tion and  equipment,  so  that  they  bear  the  marks  of  his  hands 
to  this  day.  Of  submarine  gunnery,  with  possibilities  yet  to 
be  determined,  he  was  the  undisputed  creator.  Whether 
promoting  arts  of  peace  or  of  war,  he  took  views  as  wide 
as  the  world,  always  rejoicing  in  the  boons  to  mankind 
which  were  enfolded  in  his  plans  for  steamboats  and  canals, 
his  submarine  boats  and  torpedoes.  As  he  sketched  new 
engines  of  battle,  he  believed  that  he  was  making  war  so 
terrible  that  soon  it  should  wholly  cease.  He  was  a 
many-sided  man,  and,  as  he  took  up  tasks  widely  diverse, 


74  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

each  of  his  talents  lent  aid  to  every  other.  He  was  a  cap- 
ital draftsman  and  painter,  a  mechanic  and  an  engineer, 
an  inventor  and  a  researcher.  With  all  this  variety  of  ac- 
complishment he  was  a  shrewd  man  of  business  and  a  warm 
friend.  Now  that  fields  of  human  action  are  divided  and 
subdivided,  minds  of  his  inclusive  horizon  no  longer  ap- 
pear, and,  indeed,  may  no  longer  be  possible. 


ELI  WHITNEY 

ELI  WHITNEY,  famous  as  the  inventor  of  the  cotton  gin, 
was  born  on  December  8,  1765,  in  Westboro,  a  pleasant  lit- 
tle village  of  Massachusetts,  sixteen  miles  east  of  Worcester. 
The  house  of  his  nativity  was  destroyed  long  ago ;  its  site, 
on  Johnson  Road,  bears  a  bronze  tablet  as  a  memorial. 
Whitney's  father,  who  bore  the  name  he  gave  his  son, 
was  of  English  blood,  and  so  was  his  wife.  In  good  Yankee 
fashion  he  was  both  a  farmer  and  a  mechanic.  When  he 
had  nothing  to  do  on  his  land,  he  made  chairs  for  his 
neighbors,  and  wheels  for  their  wagons  and  carts.  Beside 
a  complete  kit  of  tools  for  cabinet-making,  he  had  a  lathe 
to  turn  his  chair  posts  and  rails.  All  this  came  under  the 
eye  of  his  son  as  a  child,  and  under  his  fingers,  as  he  grew 
big  enough  to  handle  a  jackplane  or  a  gimlet.  Eli  soon 
preferred  tasks  in  the  shop  to  tasks  on  the  farm;  his 
handiness  with  hammers,  chisels,  and  saws  proved  him 
right.  At  school  he  stood  high  in  arithmetic,  and  in  nothing 
else;  it  was  at  his  workbench  that  he  excelled.  When  he 
was  twelve  he  made  a  fiddle,  having  learned  what  woods 
and  strings  were  to  be  chosen;  his  dexterity  was  rewarded 
with  an  instrument  of  fairly  good  tone.  He  now  began  to 
repair  fiddles  for  Westboro  musicians,  and  to  execute  other 
work  requiring  a  nice  touch.  His  father  had  a  watch  that 
had  cost  him  a  round  sum.  Eli  thought  it  the  most  won- 
derful piece  of  mechanism  he  had  ever  seen.  One  Sunday, 
while  the  family  were  absent  at  church,  Eli,  who  had  feigned 
illness  and  stayed  at  home,  took  the  watch  to  pieces  and  re- 
assembled its  parts.  No  mishap  befell  the  exploit,  but  Eli's 
father  was  an  austere  man,  so  that  years  elapsed  before 
his  son  divulged  this  daring  feat.  ___ 

75 


76  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Eli's  mother  died  when  he  was  a  child:  when  he  was 
thirteen  his  father  married  a  second  time.  His  step- 
mother, as  part  of  her  dowry,  brought  home  a  fine  set  of 
table-knives  for  occasions  of  state.  Eli  examined  them 
with  the  remark:  "  I  could  make  knives  just  as  good  with 
the  right  tools."  Not  long  afterward  one  of  these  knives 
was  accidentally  broken,  when  Eli  kept  his  word  to  the 
letter.  Further  additions  to  his  tool  chest  enabled  him  to 
earn  a  decent  profit  at  making  nails,  then  in  active  demand, 
owing  to  the  Revolutionary  War.  He  was  quick,  too,  at 
other  tasks :  he  sharpened  knives  and  axes,  replaced  old 
knife-blades  with  new,  and  gave  every  job  so  good  a 
finish  that,  boy  though  he  was,  no  mechanic  in  town 
surpassed  him.  His  business  grew  large  enough  to  de- 
mand a  helper.  His  quest  for  this  helper  took  Eli  forty 
miles  from  home  through  a  succession  of  workshops,  where 
he  saw  many  a  tool  and  device  to  be  copied  on  his  return 
to  Westboro.  When  peace  with  England  was  declared, 
nailmaking  was  no  longer  worth  while,  but  fashion  smiled 
on  our  young  mechanic,  and  gave  him  as  good  a  market  as 
had  war.  Just  then  ladies  fastened  their  bonnets  with  long 
metal  pins,  and  in  their  manufacture  Whitney  built  up  a 
lucrative  business.  Not  only  ladies,  but  men,  now  became 
his  customers:  at  odd  times  his  lathe  was  a-whirl  to  turn 
out  walking-canes.  Plainly  enough  here  stood  a  born 
mechanic,  and  a  young  fellow  of  energy  and  enterprise 
withal. 

As  Whitney  passed  into  youth  he  felt  within  him  a  pulse 
of  power  which  called  for  the  best  training:  at  nineteen  he 
resolved  to  enter  Yale  College.  This  project  his  step- 
mother warmly  opposed,  and  Eli  was  twenty-three  before 
his  father  said  yes,  decisively.  In  the  meantime  he  taught 
school  at  intervals,  finding,  as  many  another  teacher  has 
found,  that  teaching  is  a  capital  mode  of  learning.  At 
Yale  he  paid  his  expenses  partly  by  a  loan  from  his  father, 


ELI  WHITNEY  77 

whom  he  repaid  within  three  years  of  graduation.  At  col- 
lege he  wrote  essays  like  those  of  his  classmates,  ambitious 
of  topic,  and  rather  flowery  in  diction.  In  discussions  he 
acquitted  himself  with  credit.  Meanwhile  his  mechanical 
aptitudes  were  not  gathering  rust.  One  day  a  tutor  found 
a  piece  of  experimental  apparatus  out  of  order.  Said  he: 
"  It  must  go  abroad  for  repair  to  the  shop  it  came  from." 
"  I  think  I  can  mend  it,"  promised  Whitney.  Within  a 
week  he  mended  it  so  thoroughly  that  it  worked  as  well  as 
ever.  Not  long  afterward  he  espied  a  carpenter  busy  in  a 
house  near  the  college,  plying  tools  of  a  new  kind,  which 
Whitney  asked  to  borrow.  "  No,"  said  the  carpenter,  "  stu- 
dents always  spoil  good  tools.  The  owner  of  this  house  is 
your  landlord,  get  him  to  go  bail  for  you,  and  then  I'll  lend 
you  these  tools."  Bail  was  given,  and  Whitney  began  work. 
At  once  the  carpenter  exclaimed :  "  There  was  a  good 
mechanic  spoiled  when  you  came  to  college."  ^ 


In  1792,  in  his  twenty-seventh  year,  Whitney  was  gradu- 
ated. In  those  days  of  short  and  simple  courses,  he  was 
about  seven  years  older  than  most  of  his  classmates.  There 
was  gain  in  this  lateness  of  his  education,  as  knowledge,  un- 
staled  by  premature  familiarity,  dawned  upon  the  mind  of 
a  man.  To-day  students  of  the  Whitney  stamp  take  up 
engineering  as  a  profession,  and  soon  make  their  mark. 
At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  no  pro- 
fession of  engineering  to  attract  and  develop  Whitney's 
unmistakable  talent,  so  he  chose  teaching  as  his  field,  for 
a  time  at  least,  remembering  his  success  in  earlier  years 
with  his  pupils.  He  secured  an  engagement  with  a  school 
in  South  Carolina,  and  took  passage  on  a  ship  from  New 
York  to  Savannah.  On  board  was  the  widow  of  General 
Nathanael  Greene  with  her  family,  on  their  way  to  Mulberry 
Park,  their  home,  twelve  miles  from  Savannah.  Mrs. 
Greene  saw  at  once  that  the  young  New  Englander  was 
a  man  of  brains  and  character.  Furthermore,  he  was  an 


78  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

alumnus  of  Yale,  the  college  of  Phineas  Miller,  the  man- 
ager of  her  husband's  estate,  and  who  afterward  became 
her  husband.  When  Whitney  reached  Savannah  he  found 
that  the  salary  offered  him  was  not  a  hundred  guineas,  as 
he  had  expected,  but  only  fifty,  which  he  declined.  Mrs. 
Greene  then  hospitably  invited  him  to  her  mansion,  where 
he  would  be  at  liberty  to  study  law,  the  course  upon  which 
he  had  now  determined.  Whitney  availed  himself  of  this 
kind  offer,  took  up  his  abode  at  Mulberry  Park,  and  began 
to  read  law.  In  her  ungrudging  hospitality  Mrs.  Greene 
soon  discovered  that  she  was  entertaining  not  an  angel,  but 
an  inventor  of  the  first  rank. 

One  evening,  as  his  hostess  sat  embroidering,  she  com- 
plained that  her  tambour  frame  tore  the  delicate  silk  of  her 
pattern.  Whitney  saw  at  a  glance  how  he  could  make  a 
better  frame,  and  this  he  accomplished  next  day  to  her 
delight.  Early  next  year  Mrs.  Greene  received  a  visit  from 
three  comrades  of  General  Greene,  who  resided  on  planta- 
tions near  Augusta,  and  who  often  talked  about  sowing  and 
reaping,  with  their  vital  bearing  on  profit  or  loss.  They 
agreed  that  much  of  the  up-country  land  belonging  to  them- 
selves and  their  neighbors  yielded  good  cotton,  but  that  cot- 
ton had  little  or  no  value  owing  to  the  high  cost  of  dividing 
lint  from  seed.  At  that  time,  to  part  a  pound  of  lint  from 
its  three  pounds  of  seed,  was  ten  hours'  work  for  a  quick 
hand.  Usually  this  task  was  taken  up  when  regular  work 
was  over  for  the  day.  Then  the  slaves,  men,  women,  and 
children,  sat  around  a  taskmaster,  who  shook  the  dozing  and 
nudged  the  slow.  One  evening,  as  her  visitors  deplored 
the  lack  of  a  machine  to  supplant  this  tedious  and  costly 
process,  Mrs.  Greene  said :  "  Gentlemen,  apply  to  my  friend, 
Mr.  Whitney;  he  can  make  anything,"  showing  them  her 
tambour  frame  with  an  array  of  her  children's  toys  which 
he  had  made  or  mended.  Whitney,  thus  appealed  to,  said 
that  his  home  had  lain  so  far  north  that  he  had  never 


ELI  WHITNEY  79 

seen  cotton  as  plucked  from  the  bolls,  with  its  seed  firmly 
attached  to  its  lint,  so  that  the  task  of  separation  had  never 
occurred  to  him. 

So  deeply  did  the  conversation  impress  Whitney,  that  next 
day  he  went  to  Savannah,  and  obtained  a  small  packet  of 
seed-cotton.  As  he  pulled  the  seeds  one  by  one  from  their 
lint,  he  felt  that  it  was  high  time  that  fingers  of  iron  did 
this  simple  work,  instead  of  fingers  of  flesh  and  blood.  In 
the  basement  of  the  Greene  mansion  he  forthwith  set  up  a 
workshop  with  a  bench  and  a  few  common  tools.  These  as- 
sembled, he  began  to  consider  his  problem.  The  roller  gin, 
of  immemorial  form,  was  then  used  on  Sea  Island  cotton 
with  its  long  staple.  Such  a  gin  consisted  mainly  of  two 
rollers,  grooved  lengthwise,  and  kept  about  one-sixteenth  of 
an  inch  apart ;  their  rotation  drew  the  lint  inward  to  a  box, 
while  the  seeds,  too  large  to  pass  between  the  rollers,  were 
torn  off  and  fell  into  another  box.  Occasionally  a  small 
seed  was  caught  and  crushed  by  the  rollers,  and  became 
mixed  with  the  lint,  greatly  to  its  damage.  Upland  cotton, 
such  as  Whitney  had  to  treat,  was  shorter  than  the  Sea 
Island  variety,  and  its  seeds  were  smaller  and  more  firmly 
attached,  so  that  the  roller  gin,  either  as  it  stood  or  as  it 
might  be  modified,  was  out  of  the  question.  He  thought 
that  a  good  plan  would  be  to  thrust  the  lint  through  slits  a 
little  narrower  than  the  space  between  the  cylinders  of  a 
roller  gin,  so  that  the  seeds  would  be  broken  off  and  re- 
main behind. 

First,  then,  how  was  he  to  thrust  the  lint  through  these 
narrow  slits?  Diverse  plans  suggested  themselves.  Teeth 
cut  in  circular  iron  plates,  "  ratchet  wheels,"  as  he  called 
them,  would  have  answered,  but  he  was  not  able  to  try  these 
wheels  until  later,  when  he  found  iron  plates  thin  and 
strong  enough  for  the  purpose.  Iron  in  another  form  was 
at  hand,  and  this  he  adopted  for  his  first  experiments.  One 
of  Mrs.  Greene's  daughters  had  a  pet  bird,  and  a  coil  of 


8o 


LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


iron  wire  to  make  its  cage  had  just  been  unpacked.  This 
prompted  the  notion  that  wire  needles  or  prongs  would 
serve  to  thrust  lint  through  narrow  openings.  But  the 
wire  was  too  thick.  Nothing,  then,  but  to  draw  it  to  a 
suitable  thinness  by  appliances  which  the  untiring  mechanic 
made  there  and  then.  Day  by  day  he  tried  various  lengths 


WHITNEY'S  COTTON  GIN 

of  wire,  and  disposed  them  in  various  angles  and  curves. 
He  discovered  that  the  prongs  worked  best  when  pro- 
truding about  an  inch  from  their  cylinder.  He  found, 
also,  that  the  wire  should  have  a  gentle  curve  opposed  to 
the  direction  in  which  the  cylinder  rotated.  Week  by  week 
this  armed  cylinder  was  tested,  and  for  a  few  minutes  the 
lint  would  be  duly  thrust  between  the  slits  in  a  breastwork, 
and  the  seeds  forced  off  with  gratifying  thoroughness.  But 


ELI  WHITNEY  81 

soon  the  wire  teeth  became  clogged  with  lint,  so  that  work 
had  to  stop.  Whitney  was  puzzled  by  this  difficulty,  when, 
one  morning,  Mrs.  Greene  picked  up  the  hearthbrush  and 
asked  :  "  Why  don't  you  use  this  ?  "  The  very  thing !  Be- 
hind his  breastwork  Whitney  set  up  a  second  wooden 
cylinder,  armed  with  bristles  to  form  a  rotary  brush ;  when 
this  ran  four  times  as  fast  as  the  wired  cylinder,  it  swept 
the  lint  from  its  prongs  into  a  box,  and  trouble  was  at  an 
end. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  winter,  Whitney  completed  a 
model  so  easily  turned  by  hand  as  to  ask  no  more  exer- 
tion than  a  grindstone.  Mrs.  Greene  now  invited  her 
friends  from  near  and  far  to  view  its  hundreds  of  tiny 
fingers,  each  doing  as  much  work  as  a  human  hand.  The 
planters  in  her  assembled  company  were  enthusiastic  in 
praise  of  the  inventor's  ingenuity,  and  they  clearly  saw  what 
his  gin  meant  for  the  South.  They  urged  him  to  patent 
at  once  his  amazing  invention,  which  was  certain  4o  bring 
him  wealth  and  honor.  Whitney  declared  that  he  was 
loth  to  bid  farewell  to  law,  the  profession  for  which  his 
studies  had  prepared  him,  and  embark  on  the  troublous 
sea  which  surrounds  every  inventor.  At  last  he  yielded 
to  the  entreaties  of  his  friend,  Phineas  Miller,  who  proposed 
that  Whitney  and  himself  should  become  equal  partners 
in  patenting  the  cotton  gin  and  setting*  it  at  work  through- 
out the  South.  Miller  agreed  to  provide  the  necessary 
capital,  and,  as  the  event  proved,  unfortunately  he  did 
not  foresee  how  much  would  be  needed.  On  May  27,  1793, 
the  two  friends  entered  into  partnership  as  Miller  &  Whit- 
ney, a  firm  to  be  long  remembered  in  the  industrial  history 
of  America. 

Whitney  now  posted  to  Connecticut  to  execute  the  model 
required  by  the  Patent  Office,  and  arrange  for  the  manu- 
facture of  his  machines.  His  model  was  soon  beautifully 
constructed  by  his  own  hands,  and  on  June  20  he  petitioned 


82  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

for  a  patent  to  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  Secretary  of  State. 
Philadelphia,  then  the  capital  of  the  Union,  was  that  year 
devastated  by  yellow  fever.  This  delayed  the  issue  of  a 
patent  until  March  14,  1794.  In  the  meantime  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son examined  Whitney's  model  with  a  thorough  compre- 
hension of  its  extraordinary  merit  and  promise.  He  ad- 
dressed a  cordial  inquiry  to  the  inventor,  asking  how  the 
gin  was  built  and  used,  and  requesting  that  a  machine  be 
sent  to  him.  This  good  news  Whitney  repeated  to  his 
classmate  and  lifelong  friend,  Josiah  Stebbins,  adding,  with 
characteristic  restraint :  "  I  hope  to  make  something  of  the 
gin  yet." 

Miller,  whose  services  included  supplying  cash  for  prelim- 
inary outlays,  soon  came  to  the  end  of  his  resources.  It 
then  became  necessary  to  borrow  $2,000;  for  this  loan,  be- 
sides legal  interest,  a  premium  of  five  per  cent,  was  exacted. 
Miller's  credit  slowly  sank  from  bad  to  worse;  a  few 
years  later  he  had  to  pay  five  per  cent,  a  month,  then  six, 
and  at  last  seven  per  cent.  This  lowness  of  exchequer, 
which  constantly  harassed  Miller  &  Whitney,  meant  that 
their  cotton  gin,  while  mechanically  a  success,  was  an  utter 
failure  in  yielding  them  a  revenue.  In  the  very  year  of  its 
invention  it  had  prompted  the  planting  of  a  crop  which 
yielded  about  five  million  pounds  of  cotton,  every  pound  of 
which  passed  through  Whitney's  gin.  And  every  year 
thereafter  saw  more  and  more  cotton  planted,  until  soon 
this  became  the  main  product  of  the  South.  Why,  then, 
was  Whitney  denied  any  share  whatever  in  the  vast  wealth 
he  had  created  ? 

At  the  outset  Miller  &  Whitney  fell  into  a  cardinal  error : 
they  sought  to  own  all  the  gins  in  Georgia  themselves,  and 
take  as  their  toll  one  pound  in  three  of  their  product. 
This  levy  was  exorbitant,  and  it  aroused  the  planters  to 
anger  and  resistance.  Their  provocation  was  increased 
when,  in  March,  1795,  the  gin  factory  established  by  Whit- 


WHITNEY  COTTON  GIN 


ELI  WHITNEY  83 

ney  at  New  Haven  was  destroyed  by  fire,  cutting  off  for 
many  months  the  supply  of  new  machines.  These  machines 
were  simple  enough  to  be  easily  imitated  by  local  black- 
smiths and  carpenters,  and  serviceable  copies  were  set 
going  by  the  hundred  throughout  the  South.  Miller  & 
Whitney  soon  found  that  their  tolls  were  too  high,  or  cer- 
tainly higher  than  planters  would  pay,  so  they  agreed 
to  accept  a  royalty  for  the  use  of  their  gins,  gradually  lower- 
ing the  fee  until  it  stood  at  $200.  Even  this  moderate 
toll  was  withheld,  partly  in  downright  dishonesty,  and 
partly  through  an  omission  in  Whitney's  patent,  which 
opened  the  door  to  a  vexatious  infringement. 

On  May  12,  1796,  Hodgen  Holmes,  of  Georgia,  patented 
a  gin  which,  instead  of  wire  prongs  or  needles,  employed 
circular  saws  of  the  kind  now  universal.  The  teeth  of  these 
saws  were  kept  slightly  dull,  so  as  to  tear  the  lint  less 
than  did  needles,  and  the  Holmes  machine,  therefore,  was 
a  formidable  competitor.  Miller  &  Whitney  sued  Holmes 
for  infringement,  and  secured  a  judgment  against  him. 
He  acknowledged  the  justice  of  this  decision  by  paying 
Miller  &  Whitney  $200  as  royalty  on  one  of  their  gins. 
It  had  been  clearly  proved  in  court  that  Holmes'  machine 
was  essentially  the  Whitney  gin,  using  a  saw  of  the  kind 
which  Whitney  had  openly  employed  in  early  experiments, 
and  discarded  in  favor  of  his  wires.  In  the  first  rough 
draft  of  his  claims  as  a  patentee,  Whitney  had  included  saws 
as  alternative  devices  with  these  wires.  It  was  the  chief 
misfortune  of  his  life  that  in  his  patent  only  wires  were 
mentioned,  without  inclusion  of  saws  either  in  his  claims 
or  his  drawings.*  But  the  contest  with  Holmes  was  by  no 

*In  1804,  Miller  &  Whitney  sued  Arthur  Fort  and  John  Powell  for 
infringement  in  the  United  States  District  Court  in  Savannah,  win- 
ning an  injunction.  As  part  of  their  evidence  they  adduced  a  cer- 
tified copy  of  Whitney's  patent,  which  copy  remains  on  file  to  this 
day,  with  its  drawings,  in  the  Court  House.  In  1836,  the  Patent 
Office  in  Washington  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and  Whitney's  original 


84  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

means  at  an  end  when  judgment  was  rendered  against  him. 
His  further  course  was  narrated  by  Whitney  in  a  letter  to 
Josiah  Stebbins: 

".  .  .  Several  patents  have  been  issued  for  machines  on 
my  principle.  One  of  the  patentees  [Holmes]  claims  as  his 
invention  the  making  the  rows  [as]  teeth  of  sheet  iron  in- 
stead of  wire.  The  fact  is,  he  was  told  that  was  my 
original  idea,  and  my  machine  was  perfectly  described  to 
him,  even  by  drawings  of  every  part.  It  is  also  plain  that 
the  principle  is  the  same  in  whatever  way  the  teeth  are 
made,  and  that  they  may  be  made  in  a  variety  of  ways. 
We  commenced  a  suit  against  this  man  to  have  his  patent 
vacated.  After  a  tedious  course  of  litigation  and  delay, 
we  obtained  a  judgment  on  the  ground  that  the  principle 
was  the  same,  and  that  his  patent  was  surreptitious.  His 
patent  was  vacated  and  declared  to  be  void.  He  came  for- 
ward and  paid  up  the  costs  and  purchased  a  license  of  us 
to  use  the  machine  for  which  he  pretended  to  get  a  patent, 
and  we  now  hold  his  note  given  for  that  license.  By  some 
neglect  of  the  judge,  or  mistake  of  the  clerk  in  entering 
the  judgment,  upon  a  new  Democratic  District  Judge  being 

patent,  with  its  drawings  and  model,  was  reduced  to  ashes.  In  1841, 
thirty-three  years  after  the  patent  had  expired,  and  sixteen  years 
after  Whitney's  death,  alleged  copies  of  his  patent  and  drawings 
were  placed  in  the  Patent  Office  by  some  one  whose  name  cannot 
now  be  ascertained.  Mr.  D.  A.  Tompkins,  in  "  Cotton,"  published 
by  him  in  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  in  1901,  reprints  these  alleged 
copies  side  by  side  with  their  originals,  disclosing  a  singular  falsifi- 
cation. The  specifications  of  1841,  abridged  from  those  of  1793,  close 
with  a  paragraph  not  in  the  original  patent: — "There  are  several 
modes  of  making  the  various  parts  of  this  machine,  which,  together 
with  their  particular  shape  and  formation,  are  pointed  out  and 
explained  in  a  description  with  drawings  attached,  as  the  [Patent] 
Act  directs,  and  lodged  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State." 
These  drawings  differ  widely  from  the  originals:  they  include  saws 
as  alternative  devices  with  prongs  or  needles:  saws  had  no  place  in 
the  drawings  of  1793.  Nor  did  the  draftsman  of  1841  take  the 
trouble  to  watch  a  cotton  gin  at  work.  He  applies  its  rotating  han- 
dle to  the  brush  cylinder  instead  of  to  the  thrusting  cylinder.  The 
machine  he  drew,  if  executed  in  oak  and  iron,  would  refuse  to  work. 


ELI  WHITNEY  85 

appointed  he  found  means  to  revive  the  cause.  After  an- 
other series  of  delays,  and  when  his  own  judge  was  obliged 
to  give  judgment  against  him,  still  these  designing  rascals 
pretend  to  uphold  his  claim  and  make  a  handle  of  it  to  our 
disadvantage,  and  although  I  have  no  idea  that  any  court 
can  be  so  abandoned  as  to  take  any  serious  notice  of  it, 
yet  I  should  like  to  obtain  such  testimony  as  will  show  it 
[the  circular  saw]  to  be  my  invention,  and  thereby  put  a 
complete  stopper  on  that  business.  We  have  already  one 
positive  witness  of  the  fact,  the  first  person  to  whom  the 
machine  was  shown,  besides  Miller's  family,  which  was  in 
the  spring  of  1793.  ..."  * 

From  Whitney  let  us  return  to  Governor  James  Jackson, 
of  Georgia,  who  led  the  fight  against  him.  In  the  course  of 
his  message  of  November  3,  1800,  he  thus  refers  to  the 
Patent  Act  of  1793,  and  to  Whitney's  cotton  gin  as  protected 
by  that  Act : 

"  The  operation  of  this  [patent]  law  is  the  prevention  and 
cramping  of  genius  as  it  respects  cotton  machines,  a  mani- 

*  Professor  Denison  Olmsted,  in  his  "Biography  of  Whitney," 
first  published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  1832,  says: 

"  In  one  of  his  trials,  Mr.  Whitney  adopted  the  following  plan,  in 
order  to  show  how  nugatory  were  the  methods  of  evasion  practised 
by  his  adversaries.  They  were  endeavoring  to  have  his  claim  to  the 
invention  set  aside,  on  the  ground  that  the  teeth  in  his  machine 
were  made  of  wire,  inserted  into  the  cylinder  of  wood,  while  in  the 
machine  of  Holmes,  the  teeth  were  cut  in  plates,  or  iron  surround- 
ing the  cylinder,  forming  a  circular  saw.  Mr.  Whitney,  by  an  ingen- 
ious device,  consisting  chiefly  of  sinking  the  plate  below  the  surface 
of  the  cylinder,  and  suffering  the  teeth  to  project,  contrived  to  give 
the  saw  teeth  the  appearance  of  wires,  while  he  prepared  another 
cylinder  in  which  the  wire  teeth  were  made  to  look  like  saw  teeth. 
The  two  cylinders  were  produced  in  court,  and  the  witnesses  were 
called  on  to  testify  which  was  the  invention  of  Whitney,  and  which 
that  of  Holmes.  They  accordingly  swore  the  saw  teeth  upon  Whit- 
ney, and  the  wire  teeth  upon  Holmes;  upon  which  the  Judge  de- 
clared that  it  was  unnecessary  to  proceed  any  farther,  the  principle 
of  both  being  manifestly  the  same." 


86  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

fest  injury  to  the  community,  and  in  many  respects  a  cruel 
extortion  on  the  gin  holders.  The  two  important  States  of 
Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  where  this  article  [cotton] 
appears  to  be  becoming  the  principal  staple,  are  made  tribu- 
tary to  two  persons  who  have  obtained  the  patent,  and  who 
demand,  as  I  am  informed,  $200.00  for  the  mere  liberty  of 
using  a  ginning  machine,  in  the  erection  of  which  the 
patentees  do  not  expend  one  farthing,  and  which  sum,  as 
they  now  think  their  right  secured,  it  is  in  their  power  to 
raise  to  treble  that  amount.  ...  I  am  informed  from 
other  sources  that  gins  have  been  erected  by  other  persons 
who  have  not  taken  Miller  &  Whitney's  machine  for  a 
model,  but  which,  in  some  small  degree,  resemble  it,  for  it 
has  been  asserted  that  Miller  &  Whitney's  gin  did  not,  on 
trial,  answer  the  intended  purpose.  The  rights  of  these  im- 
provements, however,  it  appears  by  the  present  [Patent] 
Act,  are  merged  in  the  rights  of  the  patentees  [Miller  & 
Whitney],  who,  it  is  supposed,  on  the  lowest  calculation, 
will  make  by  it  in  the  two  States  [Georgia  and  South  Caro- 
lina] $100,000.  Monopolies  are  odious  in  all  countries,  but 
more  particularly  in  a  government  like  ours.  .  .  .  Their 
tendency  is  certainly  to  raise  the  price  of  the  [produced] 
article  from  the  exclusive  privilege — to  render  the  machine 
or  article  worse  from  the  prevention  of  competition  or  im- 
provement— and  to  impoverish  poor  artificers  and  planters 
who  are  forbidden  from  making,  vending,  or  using  it  with- 
out license  from  the  patentees,  or,  in  case  of  doing  so,  are 
made  liable  to  penalties  in  a  court  of  law.  The  Federal 
Court  docket,  it  is  said,  is  filled  with  these  actions.  I  do 
not  doubt  the  power  of  Congress  to  grant  these  exclusive 
privileges,  for  the  Constitution  has  vested  them  with  it, 
but  in  all  cases  where  they  may  become  injurious  to  the 
community,  they  ought  to  be  suppressed,  or  the  parties  be 
paid  a  moderate  compensation  for  the  discoveries  from  the 
government  granting  the  patent.  .  .  ." 

Whitney,  on  behalf  of  his  firm,  replied  to  Governor  Jack- 
son: 

".  .  .  It  has  always  appeared  to  us  that  the  private  pur- 
suits of  individual  industry  are  entitled  to  the  most  sacred 
and  inviolable  protection  of  the  laws,  and  that  a  good 


ELI  WHITNEY  87 

cause,  where  private  right  alone  was  concerned,  must  suffer 
trivial  injuries  without  acquiring  the  claim  to  be  presented 
before  the  solemn  tribunal  of  public  opinion.  But  when 
the  title  to  our  property  is  slandered,  and  political  persecu- 
tion openly  commenced  against  us,  under  pretense  of  of- 
ficial duty  by  our  chief  magistrate,  silence  on  our  part  might 
be  supposed  to  sanction  the  abuse.  The  urgency  of  the 
case  must,  therefore,  be  our  apology  for  meeting  Your 
Excellency  on  this  ground,  and,  in  making  a  defense  of  our 
property  right,  we  shall  draw  a  veil  over  the  passions 
which  have  brought  it  into  question,  and,  passing  over  the 
degraded  condition  to  which  the  State  has  been  reduced, 
shall  only  notice  the  measure  in  which  we  are  immediately 
implicated,  and  shall  consult  the  genius  of  our  government 
rather  than  the  acts  of  your  administration,  to  enable  us 
to  preserve  towards  you  that  respect  to  which  your  office  is 
entitled. 

"  In  the  first  place,  Your  Excellency  will  permit  us  to 
remove  the  deception  which  is  palmed  on  the  public  to  our 
disadvantage  in  the  opprobrious  term  '  monopoly/  The  re- 
spectable authors  [Edward  Coke  and  Adam  Smith],  whose 
names  were  brought  forward  to  sanction  your  opinion  on 
this  subject,  speak  of  the  exclusive  right  to  carry  on  a 
trade  or  manufacture  as  a  '  monopoly/  and  not  of  the  pro- 
tection which  government  chooses  to  give  the  arts.  The 
principle  of  the  patent  law,  Your  Excellency  will  please  to 
observe,  consists  of  a  fair  compromise  between  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  author  of  the  invention.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  but  that  an  invention  in  the  arts  must  remain  the  ex- 
clusive right  of  the  inventor  under  the  most  oppressive 
laws,  while  the  secret  is  confined  to  him,  and  many  in- 
stances have  occurred  of  the  preservation  of  the  secret 
for  years,  and  even  of  its  final  loss  to  the  public  on  the 
death  of  its  inventor. 

"  To  remedy  which  evil  and  to  stimulate  ingenious  men 
to  vie  with  each  other,  governments,  by  enacting  patent 
laws,  substantially  agree  that  they  will  afford  to  the  author 
of  the  invention  the  most  ample  protection  in  the  use  of 
his  discovery  for  a  certain  term  of  years,  on  condition  that, 
after  that  period,  it  shall  become  public  property.  And  in 
carrying  into  effect  all  such  discoveries,  it  is  well  known 
that  every  inventor  must  incur  the  whole  expense  and  take 


88  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

on  himself  the  entire  risk  of  the  success  of  his  invention, 
in  which,  if  he  fails,  his  loss  of  time  and  money  does  not 
always  constitute  his  greatest  mortification,  and,  if  he  suc- 
ceeds, the  public  advantage  must  of  necessity  go  hand  in 
hand  with  his  acquirements  [acquisitions],  since  the  in- 
ventor cannot  expect  his  invention  to  be  employed,  or  paid 
for,  unless  it  excels  all  others  in  point  of  utility.  In  the 
present  case,  we  believe  the  utility  of  our  invention  well 
known  and  candidly  admitted  by  all  rational  men.  At  the 
time  it  was  brought  forward,  there  were  millions  of  pounds 
of  cotton  in  the  seed,  which  awaited  some  improvement  in 
the  mode  of  ginning,  and  wealth,  honor,  and  gratitude 
were  promised  to  the  fortunate  exertions  of  genius  which 
would  insure  the  culture  of  green-seed  cotton  to  the  up- 
country. 

"  Under  such  flattering  auspices  and  under  protection  of 
the  law,  the  invention  was  perfected,  and,  at  great  expense 
in  money,  which  has  never  been  repaid,  and  of  time  and 
labor  which  is  unrewarded,  and  now  Your  Excellency 
would  direct  your  influence  to  blast  the  harvest  so  hardly 
earned,  and  which  for  many  years  has  waved  in  distant 
view  and  buoyed  up  our  hopes  under  adversity  and  op- 
pression, which  would  have  better  suited  the  perpetrators 
of  vice  than  the  industrious  and  successful  improvers  of 
so  useful  an  art. 

"  The  idle  stories  which  Your  Excellency  condescends  to 
repeat,  with  a  view  to  dividing  with  some  other  person  the 
credit  of  the  invention,  are  not  new  to  us,  we  have  al- 
ways considered  them  as  harmless,  while  they  only  served 
to  amuse  some  ingenious  mechanic,  but  the  place  they  hold 
in  the  executive  message  requires  us  to  observe  that  we 
know  of  no  pretensions  of  this  kind  which  can  stand  the 
smallest  examination,  and  we  shall  challenge  the  most 
distant  parts  of  Europe  and  Asia  to  produce  a  model,  or 
a  well  attested  account  of  a  machine  for  cleaning  cotton 
upon  the  principle  of  ours,  which  was  known  previous  to 
our  invention.  We  have  not  even  ascertained  that  a  single 
improvement  has  been  made  upon  the  machine,  of  which  we 
have  not  complete  evidence  of  our  previous  knowledge,  and 
experimental  use.  But  whether  the  form  that  we  have 
adopted  [the  needle  gin]  is  the  best  and  deserves  the 
preference  to  that  in  common  use  in  the  up-country  [the 


ELI  WHITNEY  89 

saw  gin],  experience  must  determine.     At  present  public 
opinion,  we  acknowledge,  in  this  respect,  to  be  against  us. 

"  The  alternative  which  Your  Excellency  suggests  of 
paying  a  moderate  compensation  to  the  patentees,  or  sup- 
pressing the  patent,  appears  to  us  to  be  injudiciously  chosen, 
for  in  the  first  of  these  cases,  if  the  bargain  is  to  be  all 
on  one  side,  and  the  persons  who  would  defraud  us  of  our 
right  are  to  be  the  sole  judges  of  the  compensation  to  be 
made,  the  oppression  would  be  too  manifest.  The  proposi- 
tion of  suppressing  the  patent  is  so  bold  a  thing  that  we 
forbear  giving  it  comment.  .  .  ."  * 

Spurred  by  this  appeal,  Governor  Jackson  appointed  a 
committee  to  examine  the  cotton  gin  question,  and  report 
with  all  despatch.  This  committee  recommended  that  the 
Senators  and  Representatives  of  Georgia  in  Congress  en- 
deavor to  obtain  a  modification  of  the  Patent  Act  in  so 
far  as  it  affected  the  cotton  gin,  "  as  well  as  to  limit  the 
price  of  obtaining  a  right  to  using  it,  the  price  being  at 
present  unbounded."  In  case  this  modification  did.  not 
prove  feasible,  then  Congress  was  to  be  induced  to  com- 
pensate Miller  &  Whitney  for  their  invention,  their  patent 
was  to  be  cancelled,  and  the  Southern  States  relieved  from 
a  burdensome  grievance.  And  now  entered  anticipation  of 
the  House  of  Governors  established  by  President  Roose- 
velt in  1908,  as  suggested  by  William  George  Jordan  of 
New  York.  The  Governor  of  Georgia,  in  conclusion, 
was  to  be  asked  to  transmit  copies  of  this  report  and  its 
recommendations  to  the  Executives  of  South  Carolina, 
North  Carolina,  and  Tennessee,  to  be  laid  before  their 
Legislatures,  with  a  request  for  the  cooperation  in  Congress 
of  their  Senators  and  Representatives. 

South  Carolina,  as  the  chief  cotton-growing  State,  was 
the  first  to  respond.  Her  planters,  in  thousands,  petitioned 

*These  communications  are  given  in  full  in  "Cotton,"  by  D.  A. 
Tompkins,  published  in  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  1901.  This  book 
contains  other  data  of  prime  interest. 


90  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

their  Legislature  to  buy  the  Whitney  patent,  and  on  terms 
which  seemed  liberal,  to  the  petitioners  at  least.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1801,  this  news  came  to  Whitney  in  New  Haven, 
from  his  friend  and  agent,  Russell  Goodrich.  It  was  now 
the  eighth  year  of  his  patent,  and  the  unfortunate  in- 
ventor had  received  from  it  little  or  nothing.  With  hope 
rekindled,  he  started  in  an  open  sulky,  as  was  his  wont,  from 
New  Haven  for  Columbia,  the  capital  of  South  Carolina, 
pausing  in  Washington  for  a  few  days'  rest.  From  Presi- 
dent Jefferson,  and  from  James  Madison,  Secretary  of 
State,  he  received  letters  so  cordial  that  they  rendered  him 
good  service  in  his  later  negotiations.  Whitney  duly 
reached  Columbia,  and  pleaded  his  case  with  tact  and  skill. 
By  this  time  the  yearly  cotton  crop  was  more  than  thirty- 
five  million  pounds,  many  cotton  planters  had  grown  rich, 
and  the  whole  broad  belt  of  cotton  country  was  thriving 
as  never  before.  Whitney  maintained  that  South  Caro- 
lina should  pay  not  less  than  $100,000  for  his  patent.  After 
prolonged  discussion,  a  vote  of  $50,000  was  passed  on  De- 
cember 1 6,  and  this  vote  Whitney  with  reluctance  ac- 
cepted, $20,000  being  paid  to  him  on  account.  To  re- 
imburse itself,  the  State  levied  a  special  tax  on  cotton  gins, 
requiring  Miller  &  Whitney  to  refund  such  license  fees  as 
they  had  collected  in  the  State,  and  to  furnish  the  State 
with  two  model  machines. 

On  November  15,  1802,  North  Carolina  followed  suit, 
enacting  a  tax  of  two  shillings  and  sixpence  a  year  for 
five  years  on  every  saw  within  her  borders.  This  tax,  less 
six  per  cent,  for  collection,  was  to  go  to  Miller  &  Whitney. 
It  netted  them  about  $20,000.  Next  year  Tennessee  fell 
into  line,  imposing  an  annual  tax  of  one  shilling  and  six- 
pence per  saw  for  each  of  four  years.  Tennessee  paid  about 
$10,000  to  the  patentees.  From  other  States,  Mr.  D.  A. 
Tompkins  estimates  that  $10,000  was  received  by  Miller  & 
Whitney ;  so  that  their  gross  revenue  was  $90,000,  of  course 


ELI  WHITNEY  91 

greatly  diminished  by  their  legal  and  other  expenses.  This 
was  their  sole  reward  for  having  created  for  the  South 
its  principal  crop,  and  added  incalculably  to  the  value  of 
Southern  plantations. 

Within  a  year  of  its  vote  to  Miller  &  Whitney,  the 
enmity  against  them  in  South  Carolina,  frankly  declared 
from  the  first,  had  grown  strong  enough  to  control  the 
Legislature.  Its  contract  with  the  patentees  was  annulled, 
the  promise  to  pay  them  was  rescinded,  and  suit  was  entered 
to  recover  the  $20,000  paid  them  a  few  months  before.  To 
gross  dishonesty  was  added  sheer  brutality.  In  a  bitter 
remonstrance  the  inventor  cried: 

"  I  was  seized  and  dragged  to  prison  without  being  al- 
lowed to  be  heard  in  answer  to  the  charge  alleged  against 
me,  and,  indeed,  without  the  exhibition  of  any  specific 
charge,  in  direct  violation  of  the  common  right  of  every 
citizen  of  a  free  government.  ...  I  have  manifested  no 
other  disposition  than  to  fulfil  all  the  stipulations  entered 
into  with  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  with  punctuality  and 
good  faith ;  and  I  beg  to  observe  farther,  that  I  have  indus- 
triously, laboriously,  and  exclusively  devoted  many  years  of 
the  prime  of  my  life  to  the  invention  and  improvement  of 
a  machine  from  which  the  citizens  of  South  Carolina  have 
already  realized  immense  profits, — which  is  worth  to  them 
millions,  and  from  which  their  posterity,  to  the  latest 
generations,  must  continue  to  derive  the  most  important 
benefits,  and,  in  return,  to  be  treated  as  a  felon,  a  swindler, 
and  a  villain,  has  stung  me  to  the  very  soul.  And  when  I 
consider  that  this  cruel  persecution  is  inflicted  by  the  very 
persons  who  are  enjoying  these  great  benefits  and  ex- 
pressly for  the  purpose  of  preventing  my  ever  deriving  the 
least  advantage  from  my  own  labors,  the  acuteness  of  my 
feelings  is  altogether  inexpressible." 

It  is  a  heart,  not  a  voice,  that  speaks  to  us  here! 
Ostensibly  the  action  against  Whitney  proceeded  on  the 
ground  that  a  Swiss  inventor  had  anticipated  him  in  devis- 
ing a  machine  which  was,  in  effect,  a  cotton  gin.  It  was 


92  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

further  charged  that  his  firm  had  not  refunded  license  fees 
as  agreed,  and  had  not  delivered  the  two  models  as  prom- 
ised. Whitney  showed  that  the  licenses  not  yet  refunded 
amounted  to  only  $580;  and  pleaded  that  his  delay  of  a 
few  months  in  furnishing  his  models  was  due  to  a  wish 
to  embody  improvements,  and  execute  the  construction  with 
his  own  hands.  Incomparably  more  important  was  the 
question,  Who  invented  the  cotton  gin?  At  the  instance 
of  General  Charles  Cotesworth  Pinckney,  and  other  stead- 
fast friends  of  Whitney,  this  question  was  referred  to  a 
committee  of  the  Legislature.  This  committee  took  evi- 
dence with  fulness  and  impartiality :  it  concluded  that 
Whitney's  claim  as  inventor  of  the  cotton  gin  was  un- 
questionable :  and  that,  therefore,  the  State  should  reenact 
the  agreement  with  his  firm.  When  this  report  came  up 
in  the  Senate,  its  adoption  was  defeated  by  a  tie  vote.  But 
the  House  of  Representatives  voted  favorably,  whereupon 
the  Senate  took  a  second  vote,  recording  14  Yeas  to  12 
Nays.  If  a  single  Senator  who  voted  Yea  had  changed 
sides,  Miller  &  Whitney  would  have  lost  their  case,  and, 
in  all  probability,  have  been  forced  into  bankruptcy.  We 
may  be  sure  that  they  rejoiced  greatly  when  at  last  they 
received  their  $30,000,  completing  the  $50,000  voted  them 
by  South  Carolina.  As  this  sovereign  State  had  been 
copied  by  her  sister  commonwealths  in  recognizing  the 
rights  of  Miller  &  Whitney,  so  also  was  South  Carolina 
followed  in  her  attempt  at  repudiation.  Twice  the  law- 
makers of  North  Carolina  sought  to  abolish  the  tax  im- 
posed for  the  benefit  of  the  patentees  of  the  cotton  gin, 
and  twice  the  attempt  was  a  failure.  Tennessee,  halfway 
in  the  four  years  of  her  agreement,  suspended  its  tax.  Lit- 
tle wonder  that  Phineas  Miller,  worn  and  worried  by  un- 
ending contests  with  plunderers,  fell  into  bad  health  and 
died  on  December  7,  1803,  leaving  Whitney  to  combat  his 
foes  single-handed. 


ELI  WHITNEY  93 

His  foes  prevailed.  When  Whitney  applied  to  Congress 
for  a  renewal  of  his  patent,  it  was  refused.  A  few  Repre- 
sentatives from  the  cotton  districts  favored  his  petition; 
they  were  overborne  by  a  multitude  of  opponents.  Thus 
ended,  as  far  as  Whitney  was  concerned,  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  chapters  in  the  annals  of  industry.  In  vain 
did  Whitney  recount  that  his  gin  multiplied  a  thousandfold 
the  efficiency  of  labor,  so  as  to  confer  stupendous  benefits 
upon  the  Southern  States,  by  enabling  them  to  supply  the 
civilized  world  at  a  low  price  with  its  chief  clothing.  From 
no  State  had  he  received  as  much  as  half  a  cent  a  pound 
on  the  cotton  separated  by  his  machines  in  a  single  twelve- 
month. Whitney,  in  the  course  of  a  letter  to  Robert  Ful- 
ton, reviewed  the  forces  which  withstood  him : 

"  The  difficulties  with  which  I  have  to  contend  have 
originated,  principally,  in  the  want  of  a  disposition  in  man- 
kind to  do  justice.  My  invention  was  new  and  distinct 
from  every  other;  it  stood  alone.  It  was  not  interwoven 
with  anything  before  known;  and  it  can  seldom  happen 
that  an  invention  or  improvement  is  so  strongly  marked, 
and  can  be  so  specifically  and  clearly  identified ;  and  I  have 
always  believed  that  I  should  have  no  difficulty  in  causing 
my  rights  to  be  respected  if  my  invention  had  been  less 
valuable,  and  been  used  only  by  a  small  portion  of  the  com- 
munity. But  the  use  of  the  machine  being  immensely 
profitable  to  almost  every  planter  in  the  cotton  districts, 
all  were  interested  in  trespassing  upon  the  patent  right,, 
and  each  kept  the  other  in  countenance.  Demagogues 
made  themselves  popular  by  misrepresentation  and  un- 
founded clamors,  both  against  the  right  and  against  the 
law  made  for  its  protection.  Hence  there  arose  associa- 
tions and  combinations  to  oppose  both.  At  one  time  but 
few  men  in  Georgia  dared  to  come  into  court  and  testify 
to  the  most  simple  facts  within  their  knowledge  relative 
to  the  use  of  the  machine.  In  one  instance  I  had  great 
difficulty  in  proving  that  the  machine  had  been  used  in 
Georgia,  although,  at  the  same  moment,  there  were  sep- 
arate sets  of  this  machinery  in  motion  within  fifty  yards  of 


94  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

the  building  in  which  the  court  sat,  and  all  so  near  that  the 
rattling  of  the  wheels  was  distinctly  heard  on  the  steps 
of  the  Court  House." 

Whitney,  indeed,  created  the  keystone  for  which  the 
arch  of  textile  industry  stood  agape.  Hargreaves  invented 
his  spinning-jenny  in  1767;  two  years  later  Arkwright  de- 
vised his  spinning-frame  for  warp;  in  1774,  Compton  ef- 
fectively united  both  machines :  then  came  Cartwright's 
power-loom.  All  these  were  cheaply  driven  by  the  steam 
engine  of  Watt.  And  yet,  for  lack  of  cotton  at  a  low 
price,  its  manufacture  had  but  limited  scope.  Cotton  came 
to  Great  Britain  mainly  from  Asia  and  the  West  Indies, 
where  slaves  or  coolies  plucked  lint  from  seed  with  their 
ringers,  or  turned  the  slow  and  faulty  roller  gin.  Here 
and  there  in  the  Southern  States  of  the  Union  a  little  cot- 
ton was  sown  in  gardens,  chiefly  because  of  its  handsome 
flowers.  In  1784,  an  American  vessel  arrived  at  Liverpool, 
says  Denison  Olmsted,  Whitney's  biographer,  with  eight 
bags  of  cotton  on  board.  It  was  seized  by  the  Custom 
House,  under  the  conviction  that  cotton  could  not  be  grown 
in  America.  In  1785,  five  bags  were  landed  at  Liverpool ; 
in  1786,  six  bags;  in  1787,  108;  in  1788,  282.  In  1793,  the 
year  in  which  Whitney  devised  his  gin,  at  least  5,000,000 
pounds  of  cotton  were  harvested  in  the  Southern  States. 
This  huge  figure  was  soon  utterly  eclipsed;  in  1825,  the 
year  of  Whitney's  death,  the  cotton  exported  from  the 
United  States  was  valued  at  $36,846,000 ;  and  all  other  ex- 
ports at  $30,094,000,  considerably  less.  Let  us  leap  now  to 
1912,  with  a  crop  estimated  at  7,000,000,000  pounds,  worth 
about  $770,000,000. 

For  seventy  years  after  its  birth  the  cotton  gin  exerted 
as  striking  an  influence  in  the  field  of  politics  as  in  the 
markets  of  the  world.  Whitney's  wheels  undoubtedly 
served  to  rivet  the  shackles  of  the  negro  slave.  When  cot- 
ton planting  was  still  unknown  in  America,  the  tasks  for 


ELI  WHITNEY  95 

field  hands  were  few  and  not  especially  gainful.  No  sooner 
were  Whitney's  machines  set  up,  than  planters  entered  upon 
a  new  and  immense  profit.  To  plow  the  ground  for  cotton, 
to  sow  and  weed  and  till  its  fields,  to  pluck  the  bolls  in 
their  successive  harvests,  and  then  to  gin  and  press  the 
lint,  gave  all  hands  lucrative  work  the  year  round.  The 
wealth  and  power  thus  won  played  a  leading  part  in  Se- 
cession, so  that,  during  four  years  of  Civil  War,  the  fate 
of  the  Union  trembled  in  the  balance.  Thus  entangled  in 
the  skein  of  invention  are  its  threads  of  bane  and  blessing. 
Whitney's  saw  gin,  little  changed  from  the  form  he  gave 
it,  separates  most  of  the  cotton  grown  in  America.  Fans 
have  been  added  to  its  brushes,  and  steels,  much  more  flex- 
ible and  lasting  than  those  of  1790,  appear  to-day  in  the 
machines  descended  from  his  model.  Since  his  time,  the 
roller  gin  has  been  much  improved,  so  as  to  gain  a  little 
upon  the  saw  gin,  as  less  liable  to  damage  the  staple.  These 
are  times  when  cotton  culture,  like  every  other  industry,  is 
being  overhauled  in  the  light  of  scientific  management.  In 
this  work  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  at  Washington  is 
playing  a  leading  part.  Its  assistant  director,  Mr.  Nathan 
A.  Cobb,  has  divided  cotton  into  eighteen  grades,  each  of  a 
specific  length  and  strength  of  staple.  He  places  a  fiber  be- 
twixt two  glass  plates,  and  throws  its  enlarged  image 
upon  a  screen ;  the  length  of  that  fiber  is  at  once  measured 
and  recorded  as  he  runs  a  small  toothed  wheel  along  its 
devious  line.  It  is  probable  that  all  the  Cotton  Exchanges 
of  the  Union  will  adopt  this  simple  apparatus  and  the  stand- 
ard grades  suggested  by  the  Bureau,  so  as  to  abolish  disputes 
as  to  the  lengths  and  qualities  of  specific  fibers.  Experi- 
ments, also,  are  afoot  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  the  speed 
at  which  a  given  grade  of  cotton  should  be  ginned.  Tests 
of  length  and  strength  of  staple,  before  and  after  ginning, 
will  settle  this  question,  and  will  further  decide  upon  the 
claims  regarding  new  models  of  gins. 


96  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

To  come  back  to  Whitney  and  his  defeat.  When  he  be- 
came convinced  that  he  must  abandon  all  hope  of  an  in- 
come from  his  invention,  he  cast  about  for  a  field  of  en- 
terprise suited  to  his  talents.  He  chose  the  manufacture 
of  firearms.  Here  he  introduced  economies  which  have  so 
greatly  inured  to  the  benefit  of  industry  as  to  parallel  the 
revolution  he  wrought  in  cotton  production.  All  this  be- 
gan quietly  enough,  and  in  distant  France.  There,  about 
1765,  General  Gribeauval  reduced  the  gun-carriages  of  the 
French  artillery  to  classes,  and  so  designed  many  of  their 
parts  that  they  could  be  applied  to  any  carriage  of  their 
class.  This  was  the  beginning  of  standardization  in  manu- 
facture, which  took  a  vast  stride  under  the  guidance  of 
Whitney.  The  methods  which  he  originated  in  the  produc- 
tion of  arms  we  shall  presently  observe.  Those  methods 
passed  long  ago,  with  inestimable  gain,  to  the  production  of 
tools,  machines,  and  engines,  from  plows  to  divide  furrows 
to  the  steam  turbines  which  impel  ocean  greyhounds. 

Manifold,  indeed,  are  the  gifts  of  war  to  peace,  and  many 
a  tool  of  industry  is  but  an  old  weapon  in  a  new  guise.  A 
flint,  as  an  arrowhead,  has  cleft  skulls  by  the  myriad:  to- 
day not  one  man  in  a  thousand  is  deft  enough  to  shape  an 
arrowhead  such  as  were  common  in  prehistoric  days.  It 
was  probably  in  smiting  one  flint  against  another  for  battle, 
that  sparks  were  struck  for  the  'first  fire-kindler,  with  all  that 
that  has  meant  for  art  and  comfort.  From  ruder  stones 
have  plainly  descended  the  hammers  of  our  shops  and 
factories.  Battle-axes,  strong  and  sharp,  told  early  for- 
esters how  to  fell  oaks  and  cedars  with  a  new  ease.  Swords, 
keen  and  elastic,  are  the  dignified  parents  of  knives  and 
planes,  of  the  chisels  of  carpenters  and  masons.  To-day 
at  Toledo  a  steel-worker  offers  a  visitor  as  a  memento  not 
a  sword  or  a  scimetar,  but  a  pair  of  scissors.  Prodigal  ex- 
periments, such  as  governments  alone  conduct,  were  in 
hand  for  years  by  the  chief  War  Departments  of  Europe 


ELI  WHITNEY  97 

to  produce  steel  armor  of  the  utmost  resistance,  and  steel 
projectiles  of  surpassing  might.  Alloys  thus  created,  which 
otherwise  would  never  have  seen  the  light  of  day,  were  then 
calmly  appropriated  by  builders  of  turret  lathes,  steam  tur- 
bines, motor-cars,  and  even  scoops  for  dredges. 

Gunpowder,  when  first  handed  to  soldiers,  changed  the 
face  of  war,  by  making  a  steady  aim  and  a  clear  eye  count 
for  more  than  prowess.  Let  us  note  what  industry  does 
with  this  compound  of  saltpeter.  During  the  years  of  the 
Civil  War,  which  broke  out  in  1861  at  Fort  Sumter,  the 
Northern  States  burned  more  gunpowder  in  their  mines, 
tunnels,  and  quarries  than  on  their  battlefields.  It  is  gun- 
powder that  carries  across  sea  and  fog  the  lines  of  every 
life-saving  station  in  the  world.  That  Napoleon  might 
transport  his  powder  carts  and  heavy  artillery,  he  gave 
Europe  the  best  roads  since  those  of  Rome.  To-day  these 
highways  bear  burdens  greater  than  Napoleon  ever  laid  on 
them,  as  they  carry  the  freight  and  passengers  of  Italy, 
France,  and  Switzerland. 

And  throughout  its  vast  and  expanding  breadths,  what 
is  the  organization  of  modern  industry,  under  such  a  cap- 
tain as  Whitney,  but  military  rule  over  again,  with  due 
modification?  Instead  of  a  commander  in  uniform,  we 
have  a  chief  at  his  desk,  who,  like  Grant  or  Kitchener,  is  at 
the  head  of  his  army  because  he  deserves  to  be.  His  duty  is 
to  plan  the  cutting  of  a  canal,  the  building  of  automobiles, 
or  the  construction  of  a  railroad.  Every  man  in  the  ranks, 
whether  endowed  chiefly  with  brains  or  with  hands,  is  well 
aware  that  most  will  be  done  and  most  divided  when  orders 
are  faithfully  obeyed.  A  worthy  successor  to  Eli  Whitney 
is  Frederick  W.  Taylor,  of  Philadelphia,*  who  has  quad- 
rupled the  output  of  metal-cutting  machines  by  an  elaborate 
study  of  how  they  are  best  designed,  fed,  and  operated. 

*His  methods  are  set  forth  in  "The  Principles  of  Scientific  Man- 
agement," and  "Shop  Management":  New  York,  1911. 


98  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Under  such  a  leader  the  rule  of  thumb  gives  place  to  the 
much  more  gainful  rule  of  science.  No  machine-tender  of 
intelligence  demurs  to  an  instruction-card  drawn  up  for  him 
by  such  a  chief.  The  best  way  to  exert  himself  is  sketched 
before  his  eyes,  and  to  do  anything  else  would  be  to  pro- 
duce distinctly  less.  For  ages  have  brigades,  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  fought  opposed  brigades.  Incidentally,  all  learned 
self-control,  courage,  discipline,  loyalty  to  a  competent 
leader.  These  lessons  have  been  inherited  by  free  men 
who  employ  their  knowledge  and  skill  to  build,  not  to  de- 
stroy. They  turn  their  steel  not  upon  other  men,  but  upon 
the  obstacles  of  nature,  that  nature  may  let  fall  its  arms 
and  become  their  friend. 

To  return  to  Eli  Whitney,  a  standard-bearer  in  this 
transition  from  weapon  to  tool,  from  war  to  peace.  In 
1797,  when  he  was  in  the  thick  of  his  law  suits  in  Georgia, 
with  the  stream  steadily  against  him,  he  despaired  of  win- 
ning any  reward  whatever  from  his  cotton  gin.  So  he  cast 
about  for  a  field  where  his  ingenuity  and  organizing  faculty 
would  yield  him  a  competence.  This  field,  wherever  found, 
must  be  safe  from  depredators.  His  choice  fell  upon  the 
production  of  muskets  for  the  United  States  Army. 
Through  the  influence  of  Oliver  Wolcott,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  Whitney  on  January  14,  1793,  received  a  contract 
for  10,000  stands  of  arms  at  $13.40,  amounting  to  $134,000, 
a  good  deal  of  money  in  those  days.  Of  these  arms,  4,000 
were  to  be  delivered  by  the  end  of  September,  1794,  and  the 
remaining  6,000  within  the  twelvemonth  thereafter.  Bonds 
for  $30,000,  signed  by  Whitney's  friends,  were  given  for 
the  due  fulfilment  of  his  contract. 

He  began  work  without  a  day's  delay.  He  had  not  only 
to  build,  he  was  obliged  to  design,  many  of  the  tools  and 
machines  he  needed.  He  must  gather  and  test  unfamiliar 
woods,  metals,  and  alloys.  His  workmen  had  to  be  trained 
to  tasks  never  before  attempted  in  America  or  elsewhere. 


ELI  WHITNEY  99 

He  had  hardly  any  capital,  but  his  credit  was  high.  Solid 
men  of  New  Haven  knew  his  ability,  and  were  proud  to 
become  his  sureties  when  he  borrowed  $10,000  from  the 
Bank  of  New  Haven.  Secretary  Wolcott,  on  behalf  of  the 
Government,  advanced  $5,000  when  the  contract  was  signed, 
and  stood  ready  to  grant  more  as  soon  as  manufacturing 
was  fairly  under  way. 

Whitney  chose,  as  the  site  of  his  factory,  a  stretch  of 
land  at  the  foot  of  East  Rock,  two  miles  from  New  Haven, 
where  a  waterfall  gave  him  the  motive-power  he  required. 
When  once  work  proceeded  in  earnest,  he  found  his  main 
difficulty  to  lie  in  the  poor  quality  of  his  raw  recruits.  He 
wrote  to  Mr.  Wolcott : 

"  I  find  my  personal  attention  and  oversight  are  more  con- 
stantly and  essentially  necessary  to  every  branch  of  the 
work,  than  I  apprehended.  Mankind,  generally,  are  not  to 
be  depended  upon,  and  the  best  workmen  I  can  find  are  in- 
capable of  directing.  Indeed,  there  is  no  branch  of  the 
work  that  can  proceed  well,  scarcely  for  a  single  hour, 
unless  I  am  present." 

The  slow  pace  of  his  work-people  perturbed  his  cal- 
culations. At  the  end  of  a  year,  instead  of  4,000  muskets, 
he  could  deliver  only  500.  It  was  eight  years  instead  of 
two  before  his  contract  was  out  of  hand.  His  factory  was 
planned  as  a  single  huge  machine,  of  a  type  wholly  new. 
In  an  armory,  before  Whitney's  day,  one  man  made  locks, 
another  made  barrels,  another  carved  stocks,  and  so  on. 
Each  man,  highly  skilled,  produced  by  himself  a  distinct 
part  of  a  musket.  This  division  of  labor  Whitney  sup- 
planted by  so  apportioning  work  that  little  or  no  skill  was 
demanded.  He  separated  the  various  tasks  necessary  to 
produce  a  musket, — planing,  filing,  drilling,  and  the  like. 
Then,  at  each  of  these  operations,  simplified  to  the  utmost 
degree,  he  kept  a  group  busy.  For  their  assistance  he  in- 
troduced three  aids,  since  indispensable  in  manufacure — 


ioo         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

drilling  by  templets  or  patterns,  filing  by  jigs  or  guides,  and 
milling  irregular  forms.  From  first  to  last  a  model  musket 
was  copied  with  precision,  so  that  every  lock,  for  example, 
was  exactly  like  every  other  among  thousands.  When  all 
the  parts  needed  to  form  a  weapon  were  assembled,  they 
united  as  a  musket  much  superior  to  an  arm  produced  on 
any  other  plan.  In  case  of  repair,  a  new  part  exactly  filled 
the  place  of  an  old  part,  and  at  trifling  cost.  Year  by  year 
Whitney  invented  many  tools,  machines,  and  improvements 
as  need  arose.  None  of  these  did  he  patent:  he  had 
patented  the  cotton  gin,  and  that  was  enough.  It  is  a  great 
achievement  to  contrive  a  new  and  useful  machine.  It  is  a 
much  greater  feat  to  confer  a  new  efficiency  on  all  the  ma- 
chines in  a  broad  field  of  manufacture. 

Whitney's  methods  were  duly  adopted  by  the  Government 
Armories  at  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  and  Harper's 
Ferry,  Virginia,  where  their  economies  soon  exceeded 
$25,000  a  year.  In  1856  the  British  War  Office  installed 
similar  plans,  and  in  1871  and  1872  the  example  spread  to 
Russia  and  France,  Germany  and  Italy.  Every  advance  of 
design  in  engines  and  machines  gives  standardization  a  new 
field  and  a  new  gain.  Engine-lathes,  automatic  planers, 
modern  milling  machines,  and  the  Blanchard  lathe  for  carv- 
ing irregular  forms  in  wood,  are  but  new  fingers  for  the 
hands  of  the  men  who  to-day  follow  the  footsteps  of  the 
musket-maker  of  New  Haven. 

A  striking  contrast  appears  between  the  Springfield 
Armory  of  Whitney's  day  and  that  Armory  as  now  operated. 
Colonel  Stephen  English  Blunt,  in  command,  says  under 
date  of  May  16,  1911 : 

"  With  the  Springfield  plant  equipped  as  it  is,  with  suf- 
ficient machines  so  that  each  of  the  1,004  machine  opera- 
tions on  the  rifle  has  its  particular  machine,  thus  avoiding 
the  necessity  of  changing  fixtures  and  adjusting  of  tools 
and  machines,  it  requires  24  working  hours  to  make  a  com- 


ELI  WHITNEY  101 

plete  rifle.  To  make  10,000  rifles  would,  therefore,  require 
240,000  working  hours,  or  30,000  working  days  of  eight 
hours  each.  On  account  of  the  size  of  the  present  Armory 
it  would,  of  course,  not  be  economical  to  work  as  few  as 
loo  men.  The  smallest  economical  working  force  for  this 
plant  would  be  600  men ;  they  would  make  10,000  rifles  in 
50  working  days.  It  would  take  100  men  at  least  two  years 
to  make  10,000  rifles.  The  Springfield  Armory  has  a  plant 
capable  of  manufacturing  10,000  rifles  in  less  than  seven 
days,  working  double  shifts  if  the  necessity  should  arise. 

"  The  musket  manufactured  by  Whitney  under  his  con- 
tract of  January,  1798,  was  a  flint-lock,  59^  inches  long, 
.69-inch  caliber,  had  about  45  component  parts,  and  fired 
a  round  bullet  of  one  ounce,  at  a  muzzle  velocity  of  800 
feet  per  second;  while  the  latest  Springfield  rifle  is  a 
magazine  rifle  43.2  inches  long,  .3O-inch  caliber,  has  105 
component  parts,  fires  an  elongated  and  sharp-pointed  jack- 
eted bullet  weighing  150  grains,  less  than  one-third  of  an 
ounce,  at  a  muzzle  velocity  of  2,700  feet  per  second." 

In  1812,  Whitney  was  awarded  a  further  contract  by  the 
War  Department,  this  time  for  15,000  stands  of  arms. 
Then  followed  contracts  with  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
with  leading  firms  throughout  the  Union.  His  system  was 
constantly  extended  and  improved,  so  that  he  earned  an 
ample  competence,  as  he  had  hoped  at  the  outset.  He  was 
now  sure  that  he  could  safely  incur  the  responsibilities  of 
matrimony.  In  1816,  he  became  engaged  to  Miss  Henri- 
etta Edwards,  a  daughter  of  Judge  Pierpont  Edwards. 
They  were  married  in  the  following  January,  a  son  and 
three  daughters  being  born  to  their  union.  But  the  hap- 
piness of  the  great  inventor  was  to  be  brief.  His  repeated 
journeys  between  North  and  South,  taken,  as  they  were,  in 
an  open  vehicle,  and  often  at  inclement  seasons,  had  im- 
paired a  frame  naturally  rugged.  In  the  course  of  1824 
he  developed  a  distressing  malady,  which  ended  his  life  on 
January  8,  1825,  shortly  after  he  had  completed  his  fifty- 
ninth  year.  His  conduct  as  a  patient  was  in  line  with  his 


102          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

career  as  an  inventor.  He  inquired  minutely  into  the 
causes  and  progress  of  his  disease,  examining  charts  of 
anatomy  by  the  hour.  In  the  intervals  between  his  parox- 
ysms of  agony,  he  devised  surgical  instruments  for  the  re- 
lief of  himself  and  of  others  in  like  extremity.  Eli  Whit- 
ney, in  his  years  of  vigor,  had  created  for  his  fellowmen 
benefits  beyond  computation:  under  the  shadow  of  death 
he  sought  to  subtract  from  their  pain.  He  had  planned  a 
new  mansion  for  himself  and  his  family :  he  requested  that  it 
be  duly  reared  after  his  death. 

What  manner  of  man  was  Eli  Whitney,  as  in  health  and 
strength  he  strode  across  the  Green  in  New  Haven?  Like 
George  Stephenson,  he  was  cast  in  a  large  mold,  and  stood 
head  and  shoulders  above  ordinary  folk.  He  was  a  kindly 
man,  whose  friendships  were  warm  and  clinging:  his  hand 
never  relaxed  its  grasp  of  the  chums  of  his  youth.  Many 
a  man  is  honest:  this  man  was  scrupulously  honorable:  it 
was  his  fate  often  to  be  scurvily  treated,  and  then  his  re- 
sentment made  him  terrible.  His  chief  faculty,  of  course, 
was  invention,  his  ability  to  strike  a  new  path  out  of  an 
old  difficulty.  This  talent  was  not  confined  within  the 
walls  of  his  factory.  Every  building  he  reared,  and  these 
included  dwellings  for  his  work  people,  bore  the  marks  of 
his  original  brain.  He  used  cement  liberally  for  founda- 
tions and  walls,  with  prophecy  of  its  wider  applications  to- 
day. The  drawers  of  his  desk  were  fastened  by  a  single 
lock,  in  a  fashion  now  usual.  Even  the  mangers  for  his 
cattle  were  improved  at  his  hands.  He  placed  a  small 
weight  at  the  end  of  each  halter,  so  that  its  wearer  could 
move  its  head  with  ease,  and  yet  could  neither  entangle  it- 
self in  its  rope,  nor  waste  its  hay. 

His  judgments  were  slowly  matured:  they  were  never 
expressed  before  they  were  ripe.  In  experiment,  in  his 
quest  for  materials,  in  his  choice  of  lieutenants,  he  was  pa- 
tience itself.  He  could  plant  to-day,  and  for  ten  years 


ELI  WHITNEY  103 

calmly  await  his  harvest.  Unlike  most  inventors,  whatever 
he  began  he  finished.  New  projects  beckoned  to  him  in 
vain,  so  long  as  unfinished  work  remained  on  his  hands. 
The  unflinching  will  of  the  man  revealed  itself  in  the  hour 
of  death,  as  his  tremulous  fingers  were  lifted  to  close  his 
eyes. 


THOMAS   BLANCHARD 

SEVENTY  years  ago  a  great  triumvirate,  Clay,  Calhoun, 
and  Webster,  were  the  idols  of  America.  Their  portraits 
adorned  parlors  and  offices,  courtrooms  and  capitols,  from 
one  end  of  the  Union  to  the  other.  Here  and  there  an  ad- 
mirer, more  prosperous  than  his  neighbors,  had  a  bust  of 
one  of  these  worthies  on  his  mantelpiece.  The  continuing 
remembrance  of  these  great  leaders  is  due  in  no  small 
measure  to  the  thousands  of  pictures  and  effigies  thus  set 
up  throughout  the  country,  and  still  to  be  found  in  many  a 
farmhouse  and  mansion  of  South  Carolina,  Kentucky,  and 
New  Hampshire.  We  may  feel  certain  that  all  three  states- 
men grew  at  last  thoroughly  tired  of  posing  to  artists,  so 
that  they  rejoiced  at  a  reprieve,  at  least  so  far  .as  sculptors 
were  concerned.  This  was  promised  one  morning  in  1840, 
as  Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Webster  were  invited  to  view  busts  of 
themselves  copied  in  wood  by  a  cheap  and  simple  process. 
These  figures,  beautifully  executed,  awaited  them  on  a 
table  in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol.  Beside  them  stood 
Thomas  Blanchard,  who  seemed  truth  incarnate,  so  trans- 
parent was  his  eye,  so  straightforward  his  speech.  Yet  he 
said  that  these  admirable  busts  had  been  carved  on  a  lathe 
of  his  invention  almost  as  readily  as  so  many  gunstocks. 
This  machine  he  had  invented  and  patented  long  ago,  but 
only  that  year  had  he  built  it  on  lines  delicate  enough  to 
reproduce  statuary.  Its  chief  business,  indeed,  had  been  to 
shape  stocks  for  guns,  handles  for  tools,  lasts  for  shoes,  and 
tackle  for  ships.  Pirates  had  been  so  numerous  and  active 
a  band,  that  this  wonderful  machine  had  brought  its  in- 
ventor but  little  reward.  He  had,  therefore,  come  to  Wash- 
ington to  ask  from  Congress  a  favor  without  precedent, — 

104 


[From  a  portrait  in  the  possession  of  F.  S.  Blanchard,  Worcester,  Mass.] 


THOMAS  BLANCHARD  105 

a  second  renewal  of  his  patent.  In  the  Capitol,  beneath  the 
table  where  he  displayed  his  busts,  was  a  basement  room 
where  the  inventor  showed  his  lathe  as  it  repeated  in  oak 
the  classical  features  of  Washington.  As  the  principle  of 
the  machine  came  clearly  into  view,  Webster  exclaimed: 
"  How  simple  it  is,  after  all !  "  Blanchard,  thanks  chiefly 
to  Webster,  was  accorded  a  third  term  for  his  patent,  on 
the  ground  of  the  high  utility  and  singular  originality  of 
his  invention,  and  in  view  of  the  inadequate  return  he  had 
derived  from  it.  Rufus  Choate,  the  eminent  jurist  of  Bos- 
ton, who  opposed  the  inventor's  petition,  could  only  say: 
"  Blanchard  has  '  turned  the  heads '  of  these  Congressmen, 
so  we  need  not  wonder  at  his  victory."  Sculptors,  day 
after  day,  came  to  view  the  Blanchard  machine.  In  their 
own  reproduction  of  a  bust  they  were  obliged,  from  mo- 
ment to  moment,  to  take  precise  measurements,  repeating 
each  dimension  with  anxious  care.  That  such  a  task  should 
be  performed  by  a  self-acting  cutter  was  simply  amazing. 

Blanchard's  lathe,  as  it  first  left  his  hands,  remains  the 
core  of  its  successor  to-day.  Its  principle  flashed  into  his 
brain  because  among  the  prime  resources  of  his  workshop 
were  revolving  cutters.  Let  us  retrace  a  few  of  the  steps 
which  led  to  these  marvelous  tools.  Knives  or  chisels  were 
doubtless  in  their  first  estate  mere  flints,  or  bits  of  shell,  to 
divide  a  fish  or  a  bird  into  morsels,  to  hack  a  root  or  a  tree, 
to  sever  a  hide  into  thongs.  Much  more  recent  than  the 
knife  is  the  wheel,  which  probably  began  work  as  a  round 
log  turning  beneath  a  burden  dragged  on  the  ground. 
When  knives  were  joined  with  wheels,  their  union  at  once 
conquered  a  vast  field  forever  denied  to  simple  knives,  or 
mere  wheels,  by  themselves.  This  union  was  prophesied  as 
soon  as  a  stone  was  rounded  into  a  wheel,  mounted  on  an 
axle,  and  bidden  to  grind  blades  of  iron  or  bronze.  From 
that  contrivance  are  descended  all  the  grindstones  of  to- 
day, and  the  wheels  of  emery,  corundum,  and  carborundum, 


io6          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

ablaze  in  ten  thousand  machine  shops  at  this  hour.  But 
every  such  wheel  has  its  appointed  limits :  it  removes  iron 
or  steel,  copper  or  brass,  particle  by  particle.  In  a  much 
wider  province  of  shaping,  the  tasks  are  bolder  and  the 
pace  swifter.  A  wheel  armed  on  its  rim  with  steel  cut- 
ters, as  in  modern  milling  machines,  sweeps  off  a  thick  shav- 
ing or  even  a  goodly  slice.  Revolving  cutters,  much  simpler 
than  these,  were  used  to  plane  iron  by  Bramah  as  early  as 
1811.  Cutters  quite  as  keen  and  strong  were  in  daily  use 
by  Blanchard  for  years.  In  his  lathe  he  broadened  their 
scope  by  nothing  less  than  a  leap. 

Let  us  look  at  his  machine  as  it  produces  a  gunstock. 
On  an  axle  slowly  revolved  are  placed  a  stock  to  be  copied 
and  a  wooden  block  in  every  way  larger.  Parallel  to  this 
axle  is  hinged  a  rectangular  carriage,  sliding  gradually  from 
one  end  of  the  lathe  to  the  other.  A  spindle  forming  the 
outer  boundary  of  this  carriage  may  freely  swing  through 
a  wide  arc:  it  carries  two  wheels  of  like  diameter,  about 
three  feet  apart.  One  of  them,  pressed  by  a  weight  or  a 
spring  against  the  rotating  stock  to  be  copied,  is  small 
enough  to  touch  its  every  point.  The  second  wheel  has  at 
its  rim  a  score  of  sharp  cutters.  As  the  first  wheel  feels 
its  way  along  every  contour  of  the  original  stock  from  end 
to  end,  its  path  is  duplicated  by  the  cutting  wheel,  which 
removes  wood  enough  from  its  block  to  leave  behind  a  copy 
of  the  model  stock.  When  once  the  lathe  is  duly  set  and 
started,  its  work  proceeds  to  a  finish  without  a  touch  from 
its  attendant.  His  task,  therefore,  is  much  easier  than 
when  he  copies  a  simple  diagram  with  a  pantograph,  for 
then  he  has  to  trace  with  his  fingers  the  whole  course  of 
every  copied  line.  Strange  that  to  reproduce  a  figure  of 
three  dimensions  should  be  less  trouble  than  to  copy  a  figure 
of  but  two! 

Thomas  Blanchard,  the  inventor  of  this  wonderful  ma- 
chine, was  born  in  Sutton,  Worcester  County,  Massa- 


ORIGINAL  BLANCHARD  LATHE,  1822 
[Museum,  U.  S.  Armory,  Springfield,  Mass.] 


THOMAS  BLANCHARD  107 

chusetts,  on  June  24,  1788.  His  ancestors,  of  mingled 
French  and  English  blood,  were  among  the  first  settlers  in 
that  vicinity.  His  father,  Samuel  Blanchard,  was  a  hard- 
working, thrifty  farmer.  How  large  a  family  he  had  we 
do  not  know,  but  o.f  his  six  sons,  Thomas  was  the  fifth. 
This  boy's  talent  for  building  and  contriving  was  manifest 
almost  from  his  cradle.  At  ten  years  of  age  he  whittled 
from  cedar  shingles  a  tiny  mill,  to  be  impelled  by  a  breeze 
or  a  brook.  The  poor  fellow  stammered  badly,  and  this 
brought  him  much  thoughtless  ridicule.  At  school  he  was 
shy  and  seemed  backward:  it  was  ever  with  joy  that  he 
dropped  his  slate  and  copybook  to  take  up  a  penknife  and 
chisel.  His  father,  though  a  Yankee,  cared  little  about 
tools  and  machinery,  and  he  glanced  without  interest  at  the 
handicraft  of  his  ingenious  boy.  Nor  was  there  much  else 
in  the  neighborhood  to  nourish  the  budding  powers  of  this 
young  mechanic.  The  nearest  blacksmith's  shop  was  six 
miles  off,  and  it  was  but  seldom  that  his  father  went  there. 
Thither  Thomas  was  taken  one  day  to  see  a  horse  shod. 
This  feat,  new  to  the  boy,  he  watched  with  both  eyes. 
What  most  amazed  him  was  to  see  the  smith  weld  two 
pieces  of  iron  as  if  mere  dough  on  a  baking-board.  Why 
not  repeat  this  marvel  at  home? 

Near  his  father's  house  was  a  shed,  once  used  for  weav- 
ing, and  now  encumbered  with  hoes  and  harrows,  plows  and 
spades,  old  and  new.  In  one  corner  of  its  attic  lay  a  heap 
of  scrap  iron,  from  which  the  lad  chose  pieces  likely  to  be 
serviceable.  With  stones  and  bricks  gathered  from  the 
farmyard,  he  built  a  forge,  like  the  blacksmith's,  only  much 
smaller.  Fuel  was  needed  next:  where  was  he  to  get  it? 
When  his  mother's  back  was  turned  he  took  coals  from  her 
kitchen  grate;  these,  thoroughly  drenched,  he  quietly  con- 
veyed to  his  forge.  A  big  iron  wedge,  firmly  driven  into 
a  log,  would  do  for  his  anvil.  When  these  preparations 
were  well  under  way,  Thomas  heard  joyful  news.  His 


io8          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

father  and  mother  next  morning  were  to  visit  a  friend 
twenty  miles  away.  Their  absence  would  give  him  a  chance 
to  weld  a  dozen  bits  of  iron  together  if  he  liked.  When 
his  parents  drove  off,  he  was  soon  plying  a  bellows  at  his 
little  forge.  In  a  few  minutes  its  blaze  was  fierce  enough 
to  soften  his  metal,  so  that  it  took  any  shape  he  pleased. 
But  to  weld  any  of  his  iron  scraps  proved  impossible,  for 
the  reason,  then  unknown  to  the  boy,  that  his  fire  was  not 
hot  enough.  He  saw  with  dismay  that  he  must  call  a  sec- 
ond time  on  the  blacksmith,  so  as  fully  to  learn  an  art 
not  so  easy  as  it  seemed  to  be.  As  the  lad  stood  surveying 
his  darkened  lumps  of  metal,  in  strode  his  father,  wonder- 
ing what  all  this  smoke  and  fire  were  about.  His  scolding 
was  qualified  by  paternal  admiration  of  the  spunk  and  gump- 
tion so  plainly  in  view.  But  it  was  a  good  while  before 
Thomas  Blanchard  undertook  his  second  task  at  a  forge. 
His  father  had  hoped  to  make  a  farmer  of  him,  and  when 
with  reluctance,  he  saw  that  his  son  was  resolved  to  be  a 
mechanic,  he  said :  "  Well,  my  boy,  learn  blacksmithing  if 
you  like.  Only  learn  it  thoroughly,  and  never  let  a  job 
leave  your  hands  unless  it  is  the  best  you  can  do." 

While  yet  a  schoolboy,  he  took  his  first  step  as  an  in- 
ventor, holding  fast  to  his  father's  injunction  of  thorough- 
ness. A  schoolmate  one  day  told  him  of  an  apple-paring 
machine  of  lightning  pace  that  he  had  seen  in  Boston. 
Without  so  much  as  a  hint  regarding  its  construction, 
Blanchard  said :  "  I  will  make  one."  Within  a  week  he  built 
a  parer  of  wood  and  iron,  its  spindle  swiftly  rotating  an 
apple  as  the  crank  was  turned;  but  its  knife  at  once  slid 
toward  the  core  of  the  fruit,  instead  of  removing  its  rind. 
To  remedy  this  fault,  our  young  inventor  took  occasion  to 
observe  that  a  hand-parer,  by  way  of  gage,  always  kept 
his  thumb  close  to  the  rind  he  was  slicing  off.  Accord- 
ingly he  added  a  gage  of  wire  to  his  blade,  which  now 
pared  its  fruit  just  as  it  should.  From  that  day  forward 


THOMAS  BLANCHARD  109 

Thomas  Blanchard  was  in  high  favor  at  paring  bees  near 
and  far :  he  could  easily  peel  more  fruit  than  any  six  rivals 
together,  no  matter  how  quick  their  fingers  and  thumbs. 
His  apple-parer  taught  him  a  lesson  he  never  forgot:  that 
if  a  machine  is  to  supplant  the  human  hand,  it  must  faith- 
fully imitate  every  successive  act  of  that  hand. 

Blanchard's  parer  was  a  hit  both  social  and  mechanical, 
and  it  gave  him  confidence  to  attack  devices  for  work  much 
more  serious  than  apple-paring.  At  West  Milbury,  a  few 
miles  from  Sutton,  Stephen,  an  elder  brother,  kept  twenty 
boys  and  men  busy  at  tack-making.  He  gave  Thomas  work 
at  a  vise,  where,  hammer  in  hand,  he  headed  tacks  one  by 
one.  It  was  so  tedious  a  task  that  the  lad  became  disgusted, 
especially  when  Saturday  night  brought  him  a  mere  pit- 
tance as  wages.  One  of  the  hands  in  the  factory  was  em- 
ployed to  count  tacks,  that  they  might  go  into  packets  of  a 
hundred  each.  Blanchard  devised  a  self-acting  counter,  ar- 
ranging a  clockwheel  so  that  it  advanced  one  tooth  every 
time  a  heading  blow  fell  on  a  tack.  At  every  hundreth 
blow,  a  bell  was  rung,  announcing  that  it  was  time  to  fold 
up  a  packet.  Blanchard's  brother  looked  askance  at  this 
contrivance,  but  its  inventor  was  not  to  be  chilled  by  lack  of 
sympathy.  He  determined  to  pass  from  counting  blows  to 
dealing  blows,  so  timed  and  directed  as  to  produce  tacks 
better  an&  faster  than  human  hands  ever  did.  Machines 
for  this  purpose  had  been  brought  out  long  before,  but 
without  practical  success.  A  machine  that  would  avoid 
their  faults  would  be  profitable,  and  this  young  Blanchard 
believed  he  could  design.  He  mentioned  his  project  to  his 
brother,  who  said :  "  It  takes  a  knack  to  make  a  tack :  no 
machine  can  do  it." 

Blanchard  was  about  eighteen  when  he  began  to  build  a 
tack-making  machine.  For  the  next  six  years  he  kept  at 
work  upon  it  at  odd  times,  taking  it  with  him  as  he  went 
from  place  to  place  in  a  round  of  factories  and  shops. 


i  io          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Whenever  he  saw  how  to  simplify  the  action  of  a  knife 
or  hammer,  an  earlier  plan  was  discarded  that  very  day. 
When  he  had  reached  twenty-four,  he  felt  that  he  could 
bestow  no  further  improvement  on  the  thoroughly  built 
model  he  now  showed  his  family.  His  machine  steadily 
poured  out  two  hundred  tacks  a  minute,  all  with  better 
heads  and  points  than  those  of  hand  production.  His 
brother  Stephen  had  been  sure  that  tacks  of  ordinary  size, 
such  as  fasten  carpets,  were  too  small  to  be  shaped  by  ma- 
chinery. He  was  silent  when  a  machine-made  tack  weigh- 
ing the  one-thousandth  part  of  an  ounce  was  placed  on  his 
palm.  Blanchard  sold  his  patent  for  this  machine  for 
$5,000.  This  seemed  to  him  a  goodly  price:  it  was  a 
mere  trifle  for  so  valuable  a  property.  The  purchasers 
shrewdly  marketed  their  tacks  without  disclosing  that  they 
were  made  by  machinery.  As  they  charged  the  prices  then 
paid  for  hand-made  goods,  their  profits  were  encouraging. 

This  tack-machine  was  so  well  designed  that  it  remains  to 
this  day  much  the  same  as  when  it  left  its  modeler's  shop. 
In  Blanchard's  time  it  was  fed  by  hand :  in  its  modern  forms 
it  feeds  itself.  A  single  tacker  and  a  quick  boy  can  now 
mind  as  many  as  twelve  machines,  while  keeping  their  dies 
well  ground  and  in  good  order.  Blanchard  carefully 
studied  the  successive  operations  of  making  a  tack  by 
hand :  he  then  so  disposed  his  levers  and  wheels,  his  knives 
and  hammers,  that  these  operations  were  duly  copied,  with  a 
force  and  at  a  speed  far  surpassing  the  possibilities  of  fingers 
and  fists.  First  of  all,  thin  plates  of  steel  were  divided  into 
strips,  each  strip  as  broad  as  a  tack  is  long.  Just  enough 
steel  for  a  blank  was  then  cut  off  by  the  contact  of  two 
upper  knives  with  a  lower  bed  knife  below.  In  this  cut, 
both  upper  knives  worked  as  one.  As  soon  as  the  steel  for 
a  tack  was  cut  off,  the  left-hand  knife  stoppe'd,  and  the 
right-hand  knife  held  the  blank  by  the  aid  of  a  steel  finger. 
This  finger  brought  down  the  blank  into  the  gripping  dies 


THOMAS  BLANCHARD 

,3 


III 


15 


BLANCHARD  TACK  MACHINE 

i,  Spindle.  2,  Connecting-rod  to  operate  heading  lever.  3, 
Gripping  lever.  4,  Logy  jaw  for  cutting  plates.  5,  Carrier  jaw, 
carrying  tack  to  gripping  dies.  6,  Heading  lever.  7,  Feed  gear. 
8,  Boom.  9,  Clearer.  10,  Barrel,  u,  Fiddle-bow.  12,  Feed-rod. 
13,  Elbow  or  feed  arm.  14,  Spring  to  hold  tack  while  carried  to  the 
die.  15,  Haul-off  lever.  16,  Nippers  for  holding  plate.  17,  Rest 
for  nipper  rods. 

In  operating  this  machine  the  plate,  of  a  width  and  thickness  suited  to 
making  the  required  tacks,  is  held  in  the  nippers  and  fed  through  the  barrel 
(10)  by  means  of  a  weight.  The  barrel  is  set  at  such  an  angle  that  the  two 
jaws  (4  and  5),  actuated  by  cams  on  the  spindle,  cut  off  a  wedge-shaped  blank 
with  the  thick  part  of  the  wedge  toward  the  header  (6).  The  bearer  (14)  is 
under  that  portion  of  the  wedge  which  is  to  form  the  head,  and  after  the  two 
jaws  have  together  cut  off  the  blank,  the  logy  jaw  (4)  comes  to  a  stop,  and  the 
blank  or  wedge  is  carried  down  between  the  leader-tool  and  the  bearer  to  the 
proper  point  to  be  taken  by  the  gripper  (3),  which  holds  it  to  be  headed  by  the 
header  (6).  As  soon  as  the  header  recedes  and  the  dies  open,  the  tack  is  ejected 
by  the  clearer  (Q)  operated  by  a  cam  on  the  hub  of  the  balance  wheel.  The 
plate  is  turned  over  every  half-revolution  by  the  fiddle-bow  operated  by  the 
elbow  and  feed-rod  from  the  gear  (7). 

LCourtesy  of  Henry  Perkins  Foundry  Co.,  Bridgewater,  Mass.] 


112          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

which  closed  upon  it,  while  a  tool  came  up  and  delivered  a 
blow  which  formed  the  head.  The  dies  now  opened,  and  a 
knock-out  attachment  drove  the  finished  tack  into  a  pan 
beneath.  In  modern  machines  these  five  operations  pro- 
ceed at  the  rate  of  275  tacks  a  minute.  Fingers  of  steel  do 
what  fingers  of  flesh  had  to  do  a  century  ago,  and 
with  no  waste  of  either  metal  or  motive-power.  To-day,  as 
in  Blanchard's  time,  most  tacks  have  their  heads  formed 
by  a  hammer.  If  heads  of  round  or  other  shape  are  desired, 
dies  of  corresponding  outline  are  employed.  A  minor  im- 
provement suggests  itself.  A  little  labor  would  be  saved  if 
the  metal  were  fed  in  continuous  rolls  instead  of  in  flat 
sheets. 

Blanchard's  success  in  devising  this  tack  machine  brought 
him  fame  throughout  New  England  as  a  man  of  rare  skill 
and  inventive  faculty.  Naturally  enough  he  soon  took  part 
in  the  quiet  revolution  then  under  way  in  the  manufactures 
of  America,  where  a  subdivision  of  labor,  and  the  produc- 
tion of  interchangeable  parts,  was  constantly  advancing  un- 
der the  impulse  received  from  Eli  Whitney  and  his  com- 
peers. In  Milbury,  a  few  miles  from  his  brother's  tack 
factory,  was  an  armory  which  produced  muskets  of  high 
quality.  Its  proprietor  welded  his  gun  barrels  under  a 
hammer,  and  then  turned  them  for  almost  their  whole  length 
on  a  lathe,  leaving  about  three  inches  at  the  breech  to  be 
chipped  and  filed  along  two  flat  and  oval  sides.  This  task 
of  finishing  cost  one  dollar  per  weapon,  a  sum  which  the 
gunmaker  was  anxious  to  reduce.  He  sent  for  Blanchard, 
and  asked  him  to  devise,  if  he  could,  an  appliance  which 
would  mechanically  finish  his  muskets.  Blanchard  carefully 
inspected  a  completed  weapon,  looked  critically  at  its  lathe, 
and  began  a  monotonous  whistle,  as  was  his  wont  when  in 
deep  study.  Before  the  end  of  that  week  he  had  added 
to  the  gun  lathe  a  simple  cam  motion,  controlled  by  a  lever, 
which  executed  the  flats  and  ovals  of  a  butt  with  ease  and  at 


THOMAS  BLANCHARD  113 

trifling  cost.  One  afternoon,  while  a  journeyman  was 
watching  this  cam  at  work,  he  said  to  a  shopmate :  "  Well, 
Blanchard  can't  take  my  job  away  from  me,  for  I  turn  gun- 
stocks."  Blanchard  overheard  this  remark,  and  muttered 
to  himself :  "  I  am  not  so  sure  of  that.  I'll  think  it  over." 

There  and  then  the  desire  to  build  a  self-acting  lathe  to 
turn  gunstocks  took  possession  of  him,  and  refused  dis- 
missal from  his  mind.  Day  by  day  he  felt  more  and  more 
convinced  that  such  a  lathe  was  feasible,  and  that  he  was 
the  man  to  invent  it.  While  manifold  schemes  for  this  ma- 
chine were  afloat  just  below  the  level  of  his  conscious 
thought,  he  was  driving  homeward  through  Brimfield, 
thirty  miles  from  Sutton.  In  an  instant  there  emerged  to 
his  imagination  a  hinged  carriage  to  hold  a  feeling  wheel, 
and  beside  it,  a  twin  cutting  and  copying  wheel.  He  cried : 
"  I  have  got  it !  "  Two  passers-by  heard  this  exclamation. 
One  of  them  said  to  his  comrade :  "  I  guess  that  man's 
crazy."  Within  a  month  Blanchard  built  a  lathe  which 
carved  so  neat  a  gunstock  that  it  hardly  asked  a  touch 
from  sandpaper.  While  at  Washington  securing  his  patent 
for  this  lathe,  Blanchard  exhibited  his  machine  at  the  War 
Department.  One  of  the  company  was  an  admiral  who  in- 
quired jocosely:  "Can  you  turn  a  seventy- four  frigate?" 
"  Yes,"  replied  the  inventor,  "  if  you  will  furnish  a  block." 

Blanchard  next  entered  the  service  of  the  United  States 
Armory  at  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  where  he  erected,  in 
1822,  a  large  copying  lathe,  still  on  view  in  the  Museum  of 
the  Armory.  It  carved  two  gunstocks  per  hour.  Its  suc- 
cessor, much  smaller  and  neater,  works  nearly  six  times  as 
fast.  In  addition  to  setting  up  his  lathe,  Blanchard  created 
or  improved  at  least  a  dozen  machines  for  the  manufacture 
of  firearms.  One  of  these  appliances  cut  square  mortises 
to  receive  the  lock,  barrel,  butt-plates,  and  other  mountings 
of  a  musket.  His  absorption  in  all  this  arduous  toil  di- 
verted his  attention  from  his  chief  item  of  property,  the 


ii4          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

copying  lathe.  This  gave  a  horde  of  pirates  a  welcome 
opportunity;  soon  more  than  fifty  of  their  machines  were 
running  throughout  the  country,  passing  out  of  Vermont 
and  Maine  northward  into  Canada.  To  hunt  down  and 
punish  these  thieves  was  both  costly  and  baffling.  The 
United  States  Armories  at  Springfield  and  Harper's  Ferry 
paid  him  a  royalty  of  nine  cents  for  each  gunstock  turned  on 
his  lathes.  Apart  from  these  payments,  his  invention  for 
years  scarcely  netted  him  any  income  whatever.  His 
troubles  with  rogues  began,  indeed,  before  the  issue  of  his 
original  patent.  While  he  was  building  his  first  model,  he 
was  watched  by  a  machinist  who  copied  his  work  day  by 
day.  When  Blanchard  reached  Washington  and  applied  for 
his  patent,  he  found  that  a  caveat  had  been  filed  on  the 
previous  day.  But  the  would-be  pirate  was  foiled. 
Blanchard,  on  the  morning  when  he  had  first  tested  his 
model,  had  called  in  two  witnesses,  who  noted  the  date. 
This  precaution  secured  a  just  title  to  the  inventor.  Of 
course,  his  patent  did  not  extend  to  Canada,  so  that  his 
lathes  taken  across  the  border  made  lasts  by  the  million,  to 
be  exported  to  the  United  States  free  of  duty.  Blanchard 
appealed  to  Congress  to  have  a  high  tariff  imposed  upon 
these  wares;  after  years  of  delay  this  was  enacted  and  the 
importations  from  Canada  came  to  an  end.  In  its  latest 
form  a  Blanchard  lathe  cuts  six  to  ten  pairs  of  lasts  per 
hour,  depending  upon  their  size  and  the  finish  desired.  The 
five  cutters  of  a  last  machine  are  so  shaped  as  to  take  cuts 
successively  deeper  and  deeper. 

,It  was  in  developing  the  manufacture  of  shoe-lasts  that 
Blanchard  first  showed  the  wide  scope  of  his  copying  car- 
riage as  duly  modified.  To  form  a  left-foot  last  from  a 
right-foot  last,  he  caused  his  pattern  and  his  wooden  block 
to  revolve  in  opposite  directions.  With  equal  simplicity  he 
produced  from  a  single  pattern  a  wide  variety  of  lasts,  pro- 
portionately larger  and  smaller.  He  employed  copying 


THOMAS  BLANCHARD  115 

wheels  differing  in  size  from  the  feeling  wheel,  and  dif- 
fering proportionately,  also,  in  their  lengths  of  path.  A 
Blanchard  lathe  thus  equipped  attracted  much  attention  at 
the  Universal  Exposition  of  1857  in  Paris,  as  it  executed  in 
miniature  exquisite  reproductions  of  life-size  busts  of  Na- 
poleon III.  and  the  Empress  Eugenie.  The  French  ad- 
mirers of  Blanchard  recalled,  with  pride,  his  descent  from 
a  Huguenot  of  Rochelle,  who,  with  many  another  refugee, 
brought  rare  skill  to  his  new  home  in  America. 

Blanchard  did  not  always  stay  indoors  at  his  work.  He 
was  a  pioneer  in  adapting  steam  to  transportation  by  land 
and  water.  In  1825  he  built  in  Springfield  a  steam  vehicle 
which  sped  along  its  highways  at  a  rattling  pace,  a  fore- 
runner of  the  motor-cars  of  to-day.  It  was  controlled  with 
ease,  turned  sharp  corners  without  strain,  went  forward  or 
backward  as  .readily  as  a  horse,  and  its  power  could  be 
doubled  when  a  hill  was  to  be  climbed.  Blanchard  clearly 
foresaw  a  great  future  for  railways,  with  their  tracks  so 
much  less  resistant  than  roadways.  He  exerted  himself  to 
form  a  joint-stock  company  to  build  a  railroad  across  Massa- 
chusetts, submitting  his  plans,  with  a  model  steam  carriage, 
to  the  State  Legislature.  On  January  23,  1826,  its  com- 
mittee reported  favorably,  but  when  Blanchard  sought  to 
enlist  capital,  none  was  forthcoming.  He  then  proceeded  to 
Albany,  where  he  explained  his  project  to  Governor  Clin- 
ton, suggesting  that  the  Empire  State  should  build  a  com- 
prehensive railroad  system,  with  a  line  from  Albany  to 
Schenectady  as  its  first  link.  Governor  Clinton  heard 
Blanchard  with  his  accustomed  courtesy,  and  told  him  that 
his  proposal  came  too  soon  after  the  exhausting  demands 
for  the  Erie  Canal.  For  that  great  artery  the  Governor  had 
wrought  valiantly  for  many  years.  Blanchard  was  now  con- 
vinced that  the  time  was  not  ripe  for  railroads,  and  he  left 
their  advocacy  to  other  promoters,  whose  success  was  not 
long  delayed.  While  railroading  had  been  in  his  thoughts, 


ii6          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

he  sketched  a  variety  of  switches  and  the  like,  which  were 
duly  adopted  when  locomotives  began  their  transformation 
of  America. 

While  railroads  had  remained  merely  in  the  stage  of 
discussion,  steamboats  had  for  years  been  plying  with 
profit  the  Hudson,  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  Mississippi. 
Blanchard  did  all  that  lay  in  his  power  to  confer  a  like 
boon  on  the  Connecticut  River.  In  1826,  the  principal  busi- 
ness men  of  Hartford  decided  to  improve  the  navigation  of 
that  stream  flowing  by  their  city.  Accordingly  a  canal  was 
built  to  overcome  Enfield  Falls,  a  few  miles  distant,  so 
that  a  free  channel  was  opened  all  the  way  to  Springfield. 
For  the  traffic  thus  offered,  Blanchard  built  the  Vermont, 
the  Massachusetts,  and  other  steamers.  Of  course,  he  be- 
stowed original  features  upon  them  all.  In  the  Massa- 
chusetts he  employed  two  steam  engines,  so  coupled  as  to 
avoid  dead  centers  at  the  crank  pin.  He  boldly  employed 
steam  at  a  pressure  of  500  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  aware 
of  the  economy  attending  its  use.  Of  course,  to  withstand 
a  pressure  so  extreme  he  was  restricted  to  boilers  of  small 
size.  But  he  found  leaks  to  be  unavoidable,  and  lubrication 
so  difficult  at  the  great  heat  involved  that  his  experiment 
was  abandoned.  Even  to-day  it  would  be  repeated  with 
hesitation.  In  1830,  Blanchard  designed  the  steamer  Al- 
legheny, to  ply  between  Pittsburgh  and  Olean  Point,  300 
miles  apart.  In  this  stretch  of  water  there  were  falls 
and  rapids  having  a  total  extent  of  600  feet. 

In  building  the  hulls  of  his  steamers,  Blanchard  found 
the  knee  timbers,  for  which  he  paid  a  high  price,  to  be 
sometimes  weak  and  faulty.  This  led  him  to  examine 
processes  for  steaming  timbers,  and  then  bending  them  into 
forms  needed  in  shipbuilding.  He  noticed  that  usually  these 
products  were  badly  cracked  and  splintered  on  their  outer 
curves.  As  the  result  of  many  experiments,  he  designed  a 
machine  which  bent  steamed  timbers  quite  free  from  frac- 


THOMAS  BLANCHARD 


117 


ture.  Its  curved  links  grasped  a  stick,  while  a  stout  screw 
firmly  pressed  the  wood  against  its  container.  To  stretch 
the  fibers  of  wood,  as  Blanchard's  predecessors  had  done, 
was  to  weaken  them ;  he  employed  only  compression,  which 


BLANCHARD'S  MACHINE  FOR  BENDING  WOOD 


does  little  harm  or  none  at  all.  His  machine  proved  to 
be  by  far  the  most  lucrative  of  Blanchard's  inventions. 
For  its  applications  to  ship  timbers  he  received  $150,000.  It 
also  profitably  turned  out  handles  for  plows  and  other  farm 


ii8         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

tools,  it  curved  felloes  for  wheels,  it  provided  slates  and 
pictures  with  frames  much  stronger  than  those  made  of 
straight  and  jointed  wood.  In  this  last-mentioned  field,  small 
as  it  seemed,  the  inventor  reaped  a  harvest  which  aston- 
ished him.  A  manufacturer  of  school  slates  came  from 
Philadelphia  one  day,  and,  showing  Blanchard  an  old- 
fashioned  square  slate,  asked  him  if  he  could  furnish  a 
frame  that  would  not  break  apart  when  let  fall  to  the 
ground.  Blanchard  took  the  slate,  chipped  off  the  corners 
so  as  to  leave  it  an  oval,  and  then  steamed  and  bent  around 
it  an  oak  strip  fastened  by  an  iron  loop.  The  slatemaker 
let  this  frame  fall  to  the  floor  repeatedly,  and,  finding 'it 
none  the  worse,  asked  Blanchard  his  terms  for  the  right 
to  manufacture  such  a  frame  for  slates.  "  Two  thousand 
dollars,"  said  the  inventor.  "  Five  hundred  is  enough,"  re- 
plied the  Pennsylvanian.  "  Give  me  five  per  cent,  royalty 
on  your  sales,"  said  Blanchard.  His  visitor  consented,  with 
the  result  that  he  paid  Blanchard  more  than  two  thousand 
dollars  during  the  first  year  of  their  contract. 

Blanchard's  income  from  his  patents  was  now  ample,  and 
he  removed  to  Boston.  Here,  during  the  remainder  of  his 
life,  a  considerable  part  of  his  time  was  devoted  to  acting 
as  an  expert  in  patent  cases.  His  intuitive  perceptions  as  a 
mechanic,  his  wide  and  varied  experience  in  machine  shops, 
and  his  sterling  honesty  gave  unimpeachable  value  to  his 
judgments.  He  died  in  Boston  April  16,  1864,  at  the  age 
of  seventy-six. 


[From   a  painting  by  himself,  using  a  mirror 
owner,  G.  William  Rasch,  of  Brooklyn. 
Museum  of  the    Hrooklvn   Tnsti 


By  permission  of  the 
his  portrait  is  exhibited  at  the 
le  of  Arts  ziml   Sripnops.l 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE 

OF  all  the  services  of  electricity  the  chief  is  its  carriage 
of  our  words  with  the  speed  of  light.  Seventy  years  ago 
so  few  could  see  that  this  great  boon  lay  within  easy  grasp, 
that  the  pioneers  of  telegraphy  had  to  fight  many  a  hard 
battle  before  they  came  to  victory.  And,  quite  without 
knowing  it,  they  were  breaking  ground  for  other  conquests 
as  decisive  as  their  owrn.  Morse  and  his  lieutenants  sought 
to  convey  an  electric  current  forty,  seventy,  or  a  hundred 
miles,  with  so  little  loss  by  the  way  that,  at  its  journey's 
end,  it  should  excite  an  electro-magnet,  and  attract  an  arma- 
ture of  an  ounce  or  two.  They  had  to  find  out  what  wire 
to  use,  how  to  place  it,  how  to  keep  its  current  from  leaking 
away.  They  had  to  learn  what  electrical  intensities  are  best 
for  long  or  for  short  lines;  and  how  properly  to  enwrap 
the  tell-tale  cores  of  their  electro-magnets.  They  accom- 
plished nothing  less,  therefore,  than  the  long-distance  trans- 
mission of  electricity,  and  of  the  motive-power  into  which 
it  may  be  instantly  converted.  They  dealt,  to  be  sure,  with 
only  trifling  volumes  of  current,  but  all  the  while  they  were 
making  straight  the  paths  for  the  modern  engineers  who 
send  millions  of  horse-power  from  Niagara,  and  from  other 
cataracts  the  world  over,  to  chains  of  motors,  lamps,  and 
furnaces  which  may  be  as  far  off  as  three  hundred  miles. 
These  inestimable  services  had  their  unregarded  beginning 
as  an  aid  to  telegraphy  almost  at  its  birth.  Professor  Charles 
Graf  ton  Page  in  1838  designed  a  simple  dynamo  as  a  rival 
to  voltaic  batteries :  on  Christmas  Day,  1844,  it  operated 
a  Morse  circuit  of  eighty  miles. 

In  American  telegraphy,  Morse  is  the  commanding  figure. 
Artist  that  he  was,  first  and  always,  he  placed  pencils  in 

119 


120          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

electric  fingers  in  such  wise  that,  instead  of  waving  idly  in 
the  air,  they  might  record  their  signals  simply  and  indelibly. 
With  a  tenacity  never  for  a  moment  relaxed,  with  the  ad- 
dress and  tact  of  a  born  diplomatist,  he  sought  information 
from  investigators,  enlisted  inventive  skill  superior  to  his 
own,  secured  votes  from  lawmakers,  and  borrowed  capital 
with  nothing  in  pledge  but  his  own  fervid  hopes.  He  owed 
much,  nearly  everything,  indeed,  to  a  succession  of  discov- 
erers all  the  way  from  Galvani  to  Henry.  But,  however 
large  his  debt  to  these  devisers,  and  to  their  interpreter, 
Professor  Leonard  D.  Gale ;  however  much  his  first  instru- 
ments were  transmuted  by  his  partner,  Alfred  Vail ;  it  was 
Morse  who  was  captain  of  the  ship,  who  planned  its  voyage, 
engaged  its  crew,  filled  its  treasury,  and,  after  many  a 
storm,  anchored  in  port  at  last.  For  this  mastery  of  men 
and  events  he  was  equipped  by  nature  and  nurture.  To 
begin  with,  he  was  well  born.  His  father,  the  Rev.  Jedidiah 
Morse,  was  a  man  of  force  and  initiative,  who  counted 
Daniel  Webster  among  his  admiring  friends,  and  with  good 
reason.  Before  he  was  licensed  as  a  clergyman,  and  while 
a  teacher  in  New  Haven,  he  began  writing  his  "  American 
Geography,"  which,  duly  completed,  won  wide  acceptance 
throughout  the  Union.  He  was  settled  as  pastor  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church  in  Charlestown,  Massa- 
chusetts, on  April  30,  1789,  the  day  of  Washington's  in- 
auguration in  New  York  as  President  of  the  United  States. 
Rev.  Dr.  Morse  served  his  parish  all  the  more  fruitfully 
because  he  looked  beyond  its  bounds.  He  took  part  in 
founding  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Andover,  the  Amer- 
ican Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  the  American  Bible  So- 
ciety, and  the  American  Tract  Society.  A  fortnight  after 
his  installation  he  married  Elizabeth  Ann  Breese,  a  grand- 
daughter of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Finley,  who  became 
president  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  now  Princeton 
University. 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  121 

On  April  27,  1791,  in  a  house  at  the  foot  of  Breed's 
Hill,  in  Charlestown,  was  born  his  famous  son,  who,  to 
recall  eminent  forbears,  was  baptized  Samuel  Finley  Breese. 
Rev.  Dr.  Morse,  like  the  shepherd  whom  Chaucer  praised, 
recommended  the  narrow  way  by  walking  therein  himself. 
Thanks  to  his  example  and  loving  discipline,  his  son  was 
ever  a  man  of  profound  religious  convictions.  As  one 
reads  his  intimate  letters,  it  is  plain  that  a  slight  jolt  in  his 
kaleidoscope  would  have  patterned  him  as  a  minister  of  the 
Gospel,  and  not  as  a  painter  and  an  inventor.  His  bent 
toward  art  declared  itself  early.  When  four  years  of  age, 
he  attended  a  school  kept  by  Old  Ma'am  Rand,  a  cripple 
unable  to  leave  her  chair.  Young  Samuel  outlined  her 
features  in  a  style  so  unflattering  that  he  received  more 
than  one  rebuke  from  her  long  rattan.  When  seven  years 
old,  he  was  sent  to  a  preparatory  school  in  Andover,  where 
he  was  fitted  for  Phillips  Academy,  near  by.  Thence,  after 
a  brief  sojourn  at  home,  he  proceeded  to  Yale  College,  en- 
tering at  sixteen.  Thither,  within  a  year  or  two,  he  was 
followed  by  his  brothers,  Sidney  and  Richard.  Thus  gen- 
erously did  their  father,  with  a  comparatively  small  income, 
provide  his  children  with  thorough  education  at  his  own 
alma  mater.  At  that  time  the  president  of  Yale  College 
was  Timothy  Dwight,  a  teacher  of  national  fame.  When 
failing  sight  obliged  him  to  have  assistants  at  his  desk,  he 
chose  the  three  young  Morses.  His  molding  influence, 
strong  upon  every  student  under  his  care,  was  all  the 
stronger  with  the  trio  for  an  intimacy  which  became 
paternal. 

Samuel  Morse's  knack  in  seizing  a  portrait  was  mean- 
time improving  by  constant  practice.  To  eke  out  his 
modest  expenses,  he  painted  miniatures  at  five  dollars,  and 
drew  profiles  at  a  dollar.  He  began  to  feel  that  his  skill 
and  joy  at  the  easel  were  pointing  to  his  career,  and  he 
earnestly  toiled  for  a  proficiency  which  might  win  his 


122          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

father's  concurrence  in  his  desire  to  become  an  artist. 
And  meanwhile,  day  by  day,  term  by  term,  he  received 
the  best  scientific  instruction  that  any  American  college 
could  then  bestow.  As  part  of  his  course,  he  learned  all 
that  was  then  known  about  electricity;  and  just  because  he 
filled  and  connected  voltaic  cells,  charged  and  discharged 
Leyden  jars,  noted  the  vibration  of  compass  needles,  his 
brain  was  planted  with  seeds  which  more  than  twenty  years 
afterward  germinated  in  his  recording  telegraph.  Much, 
evidently,  may  turn  upon  an  all-round  appeal  to  a  student's 
intelligence,  upon  bringing  to  his  view  the  whole  circle  of 
human  activity.  In  a  golden  hour  a  latent  and  unsuspected 
faculty  may  be  thus  awakened,  and  nourished,  before  the 
brief  springtime  of  responsiveness  has  passed  forever. 
Morse,  let  us  bear  in  mind,  was  not  a  probable  man  to  be 
the  Columbus  of  American  telegraphy.  His  natural  bent 
was  strongly  toward  art;  he  had  but  moderate  skill  as  a 
mechanic;  his  inventive  powers  were  not  remarkable;  he 
was  no  chemist ;  neither  had  he  the  talent  nor  the  ambition 
of  a  researcher.  Yet,  in  the  mind  of  this  man,  and  in  the 
mind  of  nobody  else,  was  kindled  the  spark  which,  all  in 
good  time,  gave  the  telegraph  to  America.  Who  was  the 
teacher  at  Yale,  who,  by  experiment  and  interpretation,  so 
fruitfully  impressed  this  young  student?  Jeremiah  Day, 
then  professor  of  physics,  who,  a  few  years  later,  rose  to  the 
presidency  of  his  university,  a  post  which  he  filled  with 
distinction.  How  he  sowed  the  good  seed  in  Morse's 
mind  is  told  in  a  note  from  Morse  to  his  father,  written  on 
March  8,  1809 : 

"  Mr.  Day's  lectures  are  very  interesting,  they  are  upon 
electricity.  He  has  given  us  some  very  fine  experiments, 
the  whole  class,  taking  hold  of  hands,  formed  the  circuit  of 
communication,  and  we  all  received  the  shock  at  the  same 
moment.  I  never  took  the  electric  shock  before ;  it  felt  as 
if  some  person  had  struck  me  a  slight  blow  across  the  arms. 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  123 

Mr.  Day  has  given  us  two  lectures  on  this  subject,  and  I  be- 
lieve there  are  two  more  remaining.  I  will  give  you  some 
account  of  them  as  soon  as  they  are  delivered,  which  will 
probably  be  in  the  course  of  this  week." 

Morse  was  also  much  indebted  to  Professor  Benjamin 
Silliman,  who  then  taught  chemistry  at  Yale,  and  who  em- 
ployed in  his  experiments  Volta's  pile  and  crown  of  cups, 
and  a  Cruikshanks'  battery.  Experiments  other  than  elec- 
trical at  times  exercised  the  ingenuity  of  Morse,  and  of  his 
brothers  as  well.  One  day  they  built  a  fire-balloon,  and  sent 
it  skyward.  On  its  second  voyage  it  lurched  against  the 
middle  college  building,  took  fire,  and  was  soon  reduced 
to  ashes.  But  this  sort  of  thing  was  to  Morse  play  rather 
than  work.  He  felt  an  impulse  ever  growing  stronger 
toward  art.  On  July  22,  1810,  he  wrote  to  his  parents  : 

"  I  am  now  released  from  college,  and  am  attending  to 
painting.  As  to  my  choice  of  a  profession,  I  still  think  that 
I  was  made  for  a  painter,  and  I  would  be  obliged  to  you  to 
make  such  arrangements  with  Mr.  Allston,  for  my  studying 
with  him,  as  you  shall  think  expedient.  I  would  desire  to 
study  with  him  during  the  winter,  and,  as  he  expects  to 
return  to  England  in  the  spring,  I  should  admire  to  be  able 
to  go  with  him,  but  of  this  we  will  talk  when  we  meet  at 
home." 

His  father  and  mother  already  had  had  proof  of  his  abil- 
ity with  the  brush.  He  had  depicted  them  both,  in  a  fam- 
ily group,  and  with  decided  skill,  some  time  before  this  at 
college.  Just  before  his  graduation,  in  1810,  he  painted 
The  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth,  with  so  assured 
a  touch  that  his  father  was  convinced  that  there  was  in  his 
son  the  making  of  an  artist.  Dr.  Morse  now  consented  that 
Samuel  should  adopt  painting  as  his  vocation.  It  was 
speedily  arranged  that,  as  he  had  suggested,  he  should 
study  with  Washington  Allston.  That  famous  artist  was 


124       .  LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

soon  to  cross  from  his  native  America  to  his  studio  in 
London.  He  and  Morse  sailed  on  July  13,  1811,  on  the 
Lydia,  from  New  York  for  Liverpool.  On  arriving  in 
London,  Morse  engaged  a  lodging  at  67  Great  Titchfield 
Street,  and  began  work  at  his  easel  with  diligence.  One 
morning  Allston  presented  him  to  Benjamin  West,  the  lead- 
ing American  artist  of  his  time,  then  in  the  zenith  of  his 
renown.  Morse  intended  to  offer  for  exhibition  at  the 
Academy  a  drawing  from  a  small  cast  of  the  Farnese 
Hercules.  This  he  submitted  to  West.  After  strict 
scrutiny  for  some  minutes,  and  much  commendation,  West 
handed  the  drawing  back  to  Morse,  saying,  "  Very  well, 
sir,  very  well ;  go  on  and  finish  it."  "  It  is  finished,"  re- 
plied Morse.  "  Oh,  no,"  said  West ;  "  look  here,  and  here, 
and  here,"  pointing  to  many  unfinished  places  which  had 
escaped  the  untutored  eye  of  the  young  student.  No  sooner 
were  they  pointed  out,  however,  than  they  were  felt,  and  a 
week  was  devoted  to  a  more  careful  finishing  of  the  draw- 
ing, until,  full  of  confidence,  Morse  again  presented  it  to 
West.  Praise  was  warmly  accorded,  but  once  again  West 
said,  "  Very  well,  indeed,  sir ;  go  and  finish  it." 

"  Is  it  not  finished  ?  "  asked  Morse,  deeply  chagrined. 

"  Not  yet,"  replied  West ;  "  see  you  have  not  marked  that 
muscle,  nor  the  articulations  of  the  finger- joints." 

Morse  now  spent  three  or  four  days  retouching  and  im- 
proving his  work,  resolved,  if  possible,  to  have  his  critic 
say  that  the  drawing  was  really  finished  at  last.  West  ac- 
knowledged the  drawing  to  be  exceedingly  good,  "  Very 
clever,  indeed ;"  but  he  ended  up  with,  "  Well,  sir,  go  and 
finish  it." 

"  I  cannot  finish  it,"  said  Morse  almost  in  despair. 

"  Well,"  said  West,  "  I  have  tried  you  long  enough.  Now, 
sir,  you  have  learned  more  by  this  drawing  than  you  would 
have  accomplished  in  double  the  time  by  a  dozen  half- 
finished  beginnings.  It  is  not  numerous  drawings,  but  the 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  125 

character  of  one,  which  makes  a  thorough  draughtsman. 
Finish  one  picture,  sir,  and  you  are  a  painter." 

How  well  he  laid  to  heart  the  severe  lessons  from  West 
appears  in  a  letter  to  his  parents,  written  on  September  2O> 
1812: 

•//•- 

"I  have  just  finished  a  model  in  clay  of  a  figure  (The 
Dying  Hercules),  my  first  attempt  at  sculpture.  Mr. 
Allston  is  extremely  pleased  with  it;  he  says  it  is  better 
than  all  the  things  I  have  done  since  I  have  been  in  Eng- 
land put  together,  and  says  that  I  must  send  a  cast  of 
it  home  to  you,  and  that  it  will  convince  you  that  I  shall 
make  a  painter.  .  .  .  Mr.  West  was  also  extremely  de- 
lighted with  it.  He  said  it  was  not  merely  an  academical 
figure,  but  displayed  thought.  ...  If  it  is  my  destiny  to 
become  GREAT,  and  worthy  of  a  biographical  memoir,  my 
biographer  will  never  be  able  to  charge  upon  my  parents 
that  bigoted  attachment  to  any  individual  profession,  the 
exercise  of  which  spirit  by  parents  toward  their  children 
has  been  the  ruin  of  some  of  the  greatest  geniuses.  ...  I 
hope  that  one  day  my  success  in  my  profession  will  reward 
you  in  some  measure  for  the  trouble  and  inconvenience  I 
have  so  long  put  you  to." 

Morse  showed  West  a  cast  of  this  Dying  Hercules.  West 
called  his  son  Raphael,  and,  pointing  to  the  figure,  said, 
"  Look  there,  sir ;  I  have  always  told  you  that  any  painter 
can  make  a  sculptor."  The  picture  painted  from  this  figure 
Morse  sent  to  the  Academy  Exhibition.  His  pains  in  its 
production  were  richly  rewarded.  To  the  day  of  his  death 
he  treasured  a  copy  of  The  British  Press  of  May  4,  1813,  in 
which  his  picture  is  declared  to  be  among  the  nine  best 
paintings  in  a  gallery  of  a  thousand,  which  included  can- 
vases by  Turner,  Northcote,  Lawrence,  and  Wilkie.  This 
picture  is  now  in  the  Art  Museum  of  Yale  University.  His 
plaster  model,  furthermore,  won  a  gold  medal  at  the  Ex- 
hibition of  the  Society  of  Arts.  Both  the  model  and  a 
cast  from  it  disappeared  and  left  no  trace  behind.  Twenty- 


126         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

five  years  afterward  Morse  came  upon  the  cast  in  the  Cap- 
itol at  Washington.  One  day,  in  1838,  he  was  installing  his 
telegraph  in  an  upper  room  there.  To  locate  his  wires  he 
descended  to  a  vault  which  had  long  been  closed.  His 
quick  eye  was  attracted  by  something  white  glimmering  in 
the  darkness.  It  was  the  cast  of  his  Dying  Hercules;  it  had 
been  given  to  the  architect  of  the  Capitol,  who  had  laid  it 
aside  and  forgotten  all  about  it. 

While  Morse  was  in  London,  the  United  States  and 
England  were  at  war.  It  testified  to  the  courtesy  and  savoir 
faire  of  Morse,  his  unfailing  characteristics  through  life, 
that  he  was  everywhere  received  with  hospitality  and  kind- 
ness. His  illustrious  compatriot,  Benjamin  West,  suffered 
no  cooling  in  the  friendship  which  had  long  bound  him  to 
King  George  Third.  In  proof  he  related  to  Morse : 

"  While  the  King  was  on  a  visit  to  me,  news  was  brought 
of  an  important  victory  over  the  rebels.  Not  finding  him  at 
the  palace,  the  messenger  immediately  traced  him  to  my 
studio,  and  communicated  the  intelligence. 

"  The  messenger  then  said  to  me : 

" '  Are  you  not  gratified  at  the  success  of  his  Majesty's 
troops  ? ' 

" '  No/  I  replied:  '  I  can  never  rejoice  in  the  misfortunes 
of  my  countrymen.' 

"  '  Right,'  said  the  King,  rising  and  placing  his  hand 
approvingly  on  my  shoulder.  '  If  you  did,  you  would  not 
long  be  a  fit  subject  for  any  government.' ' 

One  day  Morse  paid  West  a  visit  whilst  he  was  painting 
his  canvas  of  "  Christ  Rejected."  West  carefully  exam- 
ined Morse's  hands,  and  remarking  their  delicacy,  he  said : 
"  Let  me  tie  you  with  this  cord  and  take  that  place  while 
I  paint  in  the  hands  of  the  Saviour."  When  he  released 
the  young  artist,  West  said:  "You  may  now  say,  if  you 
please,  that  you  had  a  hand  in  this  picture." 

West  was  not  the  only  man  of  eminence  whom  Morse 
met  during  this  long  stay  in  London.  He  heard  more  than 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  127 

one  monologue  from  Coleridge,  and  was  a  delighted  junior 
in  the  circle  which  gathered  around  Rogers,  the  banker- 
poet.  Wordsworth  and  Crabbe,  also,  he  met.  Of  the  great 
artists  of  that  era  he  saw  something  of  Fuseli  and  North- 
cote,  Turner,  Flaxman,  and  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence.  At 
Yale  he  had  learned  quite  as  much  from  his  fellow-students 
as  from  his  professors.  In  London  he  was  as  gainfully  in- 
structed by  young  artists,  like  himself,  as  by  the  formal 
precepts  of  Allston,  West,  and  their  venerable  compeers. 
From  youngsters  of  the  brush  he  heard  criticism  and 
comment  without  retouching  or  reserve.  And  as  he 
went  from  one  studio  to  another  as  a  welcome  visitor, 
he  saw  what  patience  and  fidelity  go  to  the  making  of 
every  good  picture,  from  the  first  outline  to  the  final  var- 
nishing. 

Of  his  younger  associates  the  most  notable  was  his  chum 
and  room-mate,  Charles  Robert  Leslie,  three  years  his 
junior,  born  in  England  of  American  parents.  Leslie  was 
a  warm-hearted  youth,  of  decided  talent  and  unquenchable 
enthusiasm.  His  portrait,  in  Spanish  costume,  was  the  first 
that  Morse  painted  in  London;  Leslie  returning  the  com- 
pliment by  limning  his  friend  as  a  Highlander. 

For  a  few  months,  in  1833,  Leslie  taught  drawing  at 
West  Point,  but  he  found  the  Military  Academy  a  poor 
exchange  for  London,  and  thither  he  returned  for  good 
and  all,  rising  to  popularity  as  a  painter  of  genre  and  his- 
torical pieces.  He  wrote  an  admirable  life  of  his  friend 
Constable,  a  handbook  for  young  artists  packed  with  solid 
sense  and  wise  counsel,  and  an  autobiography  published 
after  his  death,  which  took  place  in  1859. 

Men  of  the  world  are  apt  to  prefer  the  company  of 
artists,  such  as  Morse  now  became,  to  any  other.  Painters 
see  much  of  nature  and  human  nature :  they  observe  with 
the  adhesive  gaze  of  men  storing  impressions  for  use. 
Every  portrait  painter  of  mark  cultivates  the  sympathy 


128          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

which  puts  a  nervous  or  impatient  sitter  at  ease,  that  he 
may  bring  out  a  revealing  glance  of  curiosity,  of  introspec- 
tion, of  self-approval:  and  this  sympathy  remains  with  the 
artist  when  he  lays  down  his  palette.  Lessons  not  so  im- 
portant, but  still  valuable  enough,  were  learned  by  our  young 
student  of  art :  he  was  quietly  advancing  in  nicety  and  sure- 
ness  of  touch,  both  with  plastic  clay  and  with  the  brush. 
Thus  it  came  about  that,  by-and-by,  he  could  fashion  his 
telegraphic  recorder  with  his  own  hands,  in  happy  inde- 
pendence of  model-makers.  It  is  much  when  an  inventor 
has  this  measure  of  the  builder  in  him :  in  the  very  act  of 
making  his  model,  its  creator  feels  that  here  and  there 
he  can  better  its  design  or  construction.  And  thus  the  query 
suggests  itself,  What  have  artists  and  inventors  in  com- 
mon? Mainly  breadth  and  vividness  of  imagination.  Da 
Vinci  devised  canal-locks  and  painted  Mona  Lisa,  for  many 
years  one  of  the  glories  of  the  Louvre.  Michael  Angelo,  at 
twenty-one,  carved  his  Pieta;  in  mature  life  he  planned,  as 
a  roof  for  that  Picta,  the  dome  of  Saint  Peter's.  In  less 
exalted  ranks  of  this  hierarchy  of  artist-inventors  we  may 
remark  Fulton  and  Daguerre,  Nasmyth  and  Alvan  Clark. 
These  men  were  craftsmen  as  well  as  artists ;  in  both  fields 
they  passed  from  old  to  new,  from  inheritance  to  discov- 
ery. They  divined  what  to  other  men  was  inscrutable  :  then 
they  gave  it  form  with  pencil  or  brush,  with  chisel  or  file. 
They  could  descry  the  approach  of  dawn  while  to  their 
neighbors  darkness  still  prevailed. 

To  imagination  Morse  joined  other  gifts.  He  had  a  fair 
measure  of  mechanical  ingenuity.  His  first  telegraphic 
register,  though  clumsy,  revealed  the  combining  talent  of 
a  real  inventor.  And  then  he  was  fortunate  in  having  a 
fresh  eye,  in  viewing  electrical  experiments  from  outside  the 
rut  of  professional  treadmills.  In  New  Haven  and  New 
York,  in  Albany  and  Princeton,  hundreds  of  students  had 
worked  with  electrical  apparatus,  some  of  it  better  than 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  129 

any  that  had  fallen  in  Morse's  way.  Yet  he  was  the  only 
one  of  them  all  to  bid  electricity  write  its  messages,  throb 
by  throb,  with  pencil  or  pen.  Remote,  indeed,  was  his  easel 
from  machine  shops  and  chemical  laboratories.  That  very 
remoteness,  while  it  kept  him  ignorant  of  many  important 
advances  in  knowledge,  in  all  likelihood  gave  him  a  truer 
perspective  of  the  distant  possibilities  of  science  than  if  he 
had  been  an  engineer  or  a  chemist. 

In  the  course  of  his  fifth  year  abroad,  Morse  deemed  his 
studies  to  be  fairly  closed.  On  August  21,  1815,  he  sailed 
from  Liverpool  for  Boston  on  the  Ceres.  In  Boston,  four 
miles  from  his  native  Charlestown,  he  promptly  opened  a 
studio.  By  way  of  introduction  he  exhibited  The  Judg- 
ment of  Jupiter,  for  which  the  public  encouraged  him  with 
its  voice  and  with  nothing  else.  He  received  no  offer  for 
his  picture,  and  no  sitter  favored  him  with  a  call.  With 
no  work  for  his  brush,  his  mind  reverted  to  the  mechanical 
contrivances  which  had  often  suggested  themselves  to  his 
ingenuity.  He  devised,  with  the  aid  of  his  brother  Sidney, 
an  improved  pump,  and  adapted  it  to  fire  engines.  This 
pump  was  commended  by  that  acute  critic,  Eli  Whitney,  in- 
ventor of  the  cotton  gin.  But,  alas!  like  the  portraits 
Morse  stood  ready  to  paint,  it  was  not  in  demand.  What 
resource  could  he  fall  back  upon?  Nothing  but  touring 
from  town  to  town  with  his  easel  in  quest  of  patrons.  In 
the  autumn  of  1816,  and  the  following  winter,  he  traveled 
through  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont.  Let  us  see  how  he 
fared.  From  Concord,  on  August  16,  he  wrote  to  his 
parents : 

"  I  am  still  here — I  have  painted  t"To  portraits  at  fifteen 
dollars  each,  and  have  two  more  engaged,  and  many  more 
talked  of.  I  think  I  shall  get  along  well.  I  believe  I  could 
make  an  independent  fortune  in  a  few  years  if  I  devoted  my- 
self exclusively  to  portraits,  so  great  is  the  desire  for  por- 
traits in  the  different  country  towns." 


130          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

During  the  next  month  he  met  at  a  party  Miss  Lucretia 
Pickering  Walker,  the  beautiful  and  accomplished  daughter 
of  Charles  Walker,  a  leading  citizen  of  Concord.  It  was 
a  case  of  love  at  first  sight,  with  an  early  betrothal.  Morse 
continued  his  tours,  making  friends  wherever  he  went,  and 
earning  fair  prices  for  his  work.  At  length  he  felt  war- 
ranted in  assuming  the  responsibilities  of  matrimony,  which, 
for  two  years,  he  had  cherished  in  contemplation.  On  Oc- 
tober i,  1818,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Walker  at  Concord. 
Their  union  was  of  happiness  unalloyed :  to  the  end  of  her 
days  Morse  and  his  wife  were  lovers.  The  one  supreme 
sorrow  of  his  life  was  the  early  death  of  his  devoted 
helpmate. 

He  had  now  entered  upon  the  checkered  career  of  an 
artist  whose  work  was,  at  times,  in  pressing  demand,  with 
long  intervals  of  idleness  and  the  imminence  of  sheer  want. 
In  this  regard,  as  in  every  other,  his  lot  was  one  of  sun- 
shine just  after  his  wedding  at  Concord.  When  he  had 
reaped  the  Northern  field  pretty  thoroughly,  he  went,  at  a 
friend's  invitation,  to  Charleston,  where  he  met  with  cheer- 
ing success.  For  the  Common  Council  of  Charleston,  he 
painted  a  portrait  of  President  James  Monroe.  With  his 
wonted  public  spirit,  he  took  pant  in  founding  the  South 
Carolina  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  of  which  a  friend,  Joel  R. 
Poinsett,  was  chosen  to  be  president.  Every  day  that  Morse 
remained  in  Charleston  increased  his  vogue.  In  a  few 
weeks  he  had  listed  one  hundred  and  fifty  patrons  at  sixty 
dollars  each.  He  drew  a  good  many  portraits  with  the 
understanding  that  they  were  to  be  completed  in  the  North, 
whither  he  must  soon  return  to  rejoin  his  wife.  He  now 
conceived  a  picture  of  the  House  of  Representatives  at 
Washington,  in  which  the  portraits  of  seventy  leading  mem- 
bers should  appear.  He  hoped  that  this  work  might  lead 
him  from  simple  portraiture  to  historical  painting,  for  which 
he  felt  that  he  had  talent.  He  executed  his  large  canvas 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  131 

in  the  autumn  of  1822,  and  disappointment  was  again  his 
portion.  Nobody  wanted  it,  although  it  was  exhibited  far 
and  wide,  and  much  admired.  After  many  vicissitudes,  the 
picture  came  into  the  hands  of  the  late  Daniel  Huntington, 
of  New  York,  whose  gallery  it  long  adorned.  It  is  now  in 
the  Corcoran  Art  Gallery  at  Washington. 

Morse's  skill  as  an  artist  and  as  a  mechanic  came  into  play 
during  the  summer  of  1823,  when  he  devised  a  sculpturing 
machine  in  New  Haven.  In  constructing  and  operating  this 
machine  he  was  aided  by  Mr.  Auger,  who  carved  busts  of 
Apollo  and  other  statuary,  with  no  particular  profit  to  Morse 
or  himself.  On  August  27,  1823,  Morse  wrote  to  his  wife : 

"  The  more  I  think  of  making  a  push  at  New  York  as  a 
permanent  place  of  residence  in  my  profession,  the  more 
proper  it  seems  that  it  should  be  at  once.  New  York  does 
not  yet  feel  the  influx  of  wealth  from  the  Western  Canals, 
but  in  a  year  or  two  she  will  feel  it,  and  it  will  be  ad- 
vantageous to  me  to  be  previously  identified  among  her  citi- 
zens as  a  painter.  It  requires  some  little  time  to  become 
renowned  in  such  a  city." 

During  the  ensuing  month  Morse  took  up  his  residence 
in  New  York,  and  wrote  to  his  wife : 

"  I  have  obtained  a  place  to  board  at  friend  Coolidge's  at 
$2.25  per  week,  and  have  taken  for  my  studio  a  fine  room  in 
Broadway  [No.  96],  on  the  corner  of  Pine  Street,  opposite 
Trinity  Churchyard,  for  $6.50  a  week,  fifty  cents  less  than  I 
expected  to  pay.  .  .  ." 

In  this  studio  the  first  portrait  he  painted  was  that  of 
Chancellor  Kent,  who  proved  to  be  a  nervous  and  fidgety 
subject.  Morse  would  have  been  glad  of  other  sitters,  just 
as  troublesome.  But  the  Chancellor  was  not  followed  up- 
stairs by  any  other  patron,  and  on  December  21,  1823,  with 
Christmas  at  hand,  Morse  wrote  to  his  wife  in  anything  but 
a  festal  key : 


132          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

"  My  cash  is  almost  gone,  and  I  begin  to  feel  some  anxiety 
and  perplexity  to  know  what  to  do.  ...  I  have  thought  of 
various  plans,  but  which  to  decide  upon  I  am  completely  at 
a  loss,  nor  can  I  decide  until  I  hear  definitely  from  Wash- 
ington in  regard  to  my  Mexico  expedition.  I  wrote  to  Gen- 
eral Van  Rensselaer,  Mr.  Poinsett,  and  Colonel  Hayne,  of 
the  Senate,  applying  for  some  situation  in  the  legation  soon 
to  be  sent  to  Mexico." 


He  was  duly  appointed  attache.  But  Mr.  Edwards,  who 
was  to  have  been  Minister  to  Mexico,  and  Morse's  chief, 
through  a  quarrel  with  the  powers  that  were,  did  not  en- 
ter on  his  mission,  and  once  more  the  poor  artist  knew 
the  bitterness  of  balked  hopes.  But,  after  much  cloudy 
weather,  Morse  was  to  enjoy  a  little  sunshine.  He  was  com- 
missioned by  the  City  of  New  York  to  paint  a  portrait  of 
Lafayette.  He  proceeded  to  Washington  forthwith,  to  find 
Lafayette  as  agreeable  in  a  studio  as  in  a  drawing-room. 
While  he  was  painting  this  picture,  he  received  word  that 
on  February  8,  1825,  his  wife  had  suddenly  died.  This 
blow  was  almost  more  than  Morse  could  bear.  He  and 
his  wife  had  been  devotedly  attached  to  one  another,  and 
that  she  should  pass  away  in  his  absence  added  pang  to  pang. 
An  aggravation  of  his  grief  was  the  six  days  and  nights' 
constant  travel  which  then  divided  Washington  from  New 
Haven.  To-day  the  journey  may  be  accomplished  in  less 
than  seven  hours.  On  his  return  to  Washington,  utterly 
heartbroken,  Morse  finished  his  portrait  of  Lafayette,  which 
hangs  in  the  City  Hall  of  New  York. 

He  now  resumed  work  in  his  Broadway  studio,  and  al- 
though his  canvases  commended  themselves  to  the  fraternity 
of  artists,  he  painted  too  few  of  them  to  yield  him  a  living. 
Of  his  high  standing  with  his  brethren  of  the  brush  there 
was  soon  unmistakable  proof.  Colonel  Trumbull,  the  his- 
torical painter,  was  then  president  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts,  the  one  society  of  artists  in  New  York.  He  was 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  133 

accused  of  inhospitality  to  young  students,  and  on  other 
grounds  he  was  generally  disliked.  In  their  discontent,  a 
group  of  painters  and  sculptors  proposed  to  found  a  Na- 
tional Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  of  Design.  Accordingly, 
on  January  15,  1826,  fifteen  artists  were  chosen  by  ballot 
as  foundation  members,  with  Morse  as  president,  a  post 
he  held  until  1845,  with  honor  to  himself,  with  usefulness 
both  to  his  associates  and  the  public.  The  Academy,  its 
name  shortened,  still  flourishes  in  New  York,  with  art- 
classes  much  expanded  and  strengthened  in  the  recent  years 
of  its  history. 

While  Morse  was  at  work  with  his  wonted  industry,  there 
came  to  him  bad  news  from  New  Haven.  His  father,  to 
whom  in  every  extremity  he  could  turn  for  sympathy  and 
aid,  was  dying.  On  June  9,  1826,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Morse  ex- 
pired in  his  sixty-fourth  year.  With  the  children  of  his  son 
Samuel,  he  had  resided  in  New  Haven  for  six  years.  In 
1823,  three  years  before  their  father  died,  Samuel's  brothers, 
Sidney  and  Richard,  removed  to  New  York,  and  established 
The  Observer,  a  family  journal  of  a  religious  character. 
After  a  severe  struggle  their  newspaper  became  profitable, 
thanks  to  their  energy  and  ability. 

Samuel  Morse,  in  his  devotion  to  art,  had  not  lost  sight  of 
the  amazing  developments  in  science  of  each  passing  year. 
In  1820,  during  a  brief  stay  in  New  Haven,  he  often  visited 
the  laboratory  of  Professor  Silliman,  which  had  recently 
acquired  from  Dr.  Hare,  of  Philadelphia,  a  galvanic  calori- 
motor  and  his  deflagrator  for  the  combustion  of  metals. 
But  it  was  not  in  producing  high  temperatures  that  Morse 
was  to  use  electricity.  The  path  of  his  interests  and  of  his 
ultimate  triumph  was  cleared  and  broadened  when,  seven 
years  later,  in  1827,  he  attended  in  New  York  a  course  of 
lectures  by  Professor  James  Freeman  Dana,  of  Columbia 
College.  Now  came  warmth  and  light  to  the  seeds  long  ago 
planted  in  his  mind  at  Yale.  He  observed  with  wonder  how 


134         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

a  straight  wire  conveying  electricity  deflected  a  nearby  com- 
pass needle,  an  effect  noticed  first  by  Romagnesi  at  Trent  in 
1802,  and  independently  remarked  by  Oersted  in  1819,  at 
Copenhagen.  He  saw  how,  following  an  experiment  de- 
vised by  Professor  Schweigger,  of  Halle,  this  wire,  when 
bent  as  a  ring,  deflected  the  needle  much  more  than  before. 
But  what  particularly  impressed  him  was  an  electro-magnet 
invented,  in  1825,  by  William  Sturgeon,  of  Woolwich,  near 
London.  Here  was  a  strip  of  soft  iron,  curved  as  a  horse- 
shoe, around  which  were  coiled  a  few  feet  of  copper  wire. 
By  way  of  insulation  the  iron  had  received  a  coat  of  varnish. 
When  an  electric  current  passed  through  this  wire,  at  once 
the  iron  became  magnetic,  only  to  lose  its  magnetism  the 
instant  that  the  current  was  cut  off.  This  action,  so  much 
more  positive  and  energetic  than  the  swaying  of  a  compass 
needle,  rooted  itself  deeply  in  Morse's  brooding  mind.  It 
was  this  clutching  effect  that  he  chose,  and  most  wisely,  for 
the  register  he  eventually  designed.  Other  inventors,  less 
sound  in  judgment,  preferred  a  vibrating  needle  as  their 
agent,  and  force  of  habit  saddles  that  choice  upon  their 
army  of  successors. 

But  Morse's  interest  in  electrical  progress  at  this  time 
was  but  an  incident  in  a  life  devoted  to  art:  he  turned  to 
the  laboratory  for  the  refreshing  which  comes  with  a 
change  of  outlook.  His  practice  as  a  painter  had  steadily 
grown,  until  now  he  was  offered  more  commissions  than  he 
could  execute.  Amid  this  pressure  of  toil,  he  prepared  and 
delivered  a  series  of  discourses  on  the  fine  arts.  These 
were  among  the  first  lectures  on  art  ever  heard  in  America. 
Their  quality  widened  his  circle  of  friends,  and  bore  fruit 
in  a  professorship  five  years  afterward.  Yet  for  all  his 
goodly  income  as  an  artist,  Morse,  now  in  his  thirty-ninth 
year,  was  dissatisfied  with  his  pictures.  He  resolved  to  visit 
Italy,  there,  at  leisure,  to  become  familiar  with  the  master- 
pieces of  all  time,  to  refine  his  taste,  and  improve  his  tech- 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE 


135 


nique.  A  score  of  his  friends  at  once  subscribed  $2,800 
for  canvases  which  he  was  to  paint  while  abroad,  either  as 
copies  or  original  works.  He  sailed  from  New  York  on 
November  8,  1829,  landing  in  Liverpool  twenty-six  days 


CHAPP£  TELEGRAPH 

thereafter.  In  England  he  met  Leslie  and  other  intimates 
of  his  youth,  and,  proceeding  through  France,  took  his 
way  to  the  Italian  frontier.  Near  Lyons,  on  his  southward 
course,  he  saw  the  waving  arms  of  a  Chappe  semaphore, 


136          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

such  as  he  was  to  banish  from  the  world.  On  February  20 
he  found  himself  in  Rome:  without  losing  a  day  he  began 
to  copy  Raphael's  School  of  Athens  for  Robert  Donaldson, 
of  New  York.  In  the  Vatican  and  other  great  galleries 
of  Italy,  he  copied  with  industry,  learning  many  a  golden 
lesson  as  he  plied  the  brush.  William  Dunlap,  in  his  "  His- 
tory of  the  Arts  in  America,"  says  : 

"  Mr.  Morse  has  told  me  that  he  formed  a  theory  for  the 
distribution  of  colors  in  a  picture  many  years  since,  when 
standing  before  a  picture  by  Paul  Veronese,  which  has  been 
confirmed  by  all  his  subsequent  studies  of  the  works  of  the 
great  masters.  This  picture  is  now  in  the  National  Gallery, 
London.  He  saw  in  it  that  the  highest  light  was  cold;  the 
mass  of  light,  warm ;  the  middle  tint,  cool ;  the  shadow, 
negative;  the  reflections,  hot.  He  says  that  he  has  tried 
this  theory  by  placing  a  white  ball  in  a  box,  lined  with 
white,  and  convinced  himself  that  the  system  of  Paul 
Veronese  is  the  order  of  nature.  Balls  of  orange,  or  of 
blue,  so  placed,  give  the  same  relative  result.  The  high 
light  of  the  ball  is  uniformly  cold  in  comparison  with  the 
local  color  of  the  ball. 

"  '  I  have  observed  in  a  picture  by  Rubens/  said  Morse, 
'  that  it  had  a  foxy  tone,  and,  on  examination,  I  found  that 
the  shadow  (which,  according  to  my  theory,  ought  to  be 
negative)  was  hot  Whenever  I  found  this  to  be  the  case,  I 
found  the  picture  foxy.'  On  one  occasion  his  friend  Allston 
said  to  him,  while  standing  before  an  unfinished  painting, 
'  I  have  painted  that  piece  of  drapery  of  every  color,  and  it 
will  not  harmonize  with  the  rest  of  the  picture/  Morse 
found  the  drapery  belonged  to  the  mass  of  light,  and  said, 
'  According  to  my  theory,  it  must  be  warm ;  paint  it  flesh- 
color.'  '  What  do  you  mean  by  your  theory  ?  '  Morse  ex- 
plained it.  Allston  immediately  said :  'It  is  so ;  it  is  in 
nature  /  and  has  since  said,  '  Your  theory  has  saved  me 
many  an  hour's  labor.' ' 

Morse,  during  his  sojourn  in  Italy,  formed  many  delight- 
ful friendships.  His  desire  to  please  and  help  others  always 
made  others  desire  to  please  and  help  him.  He  became  in- 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  137 

timate  with  the  great  Danish  sculptor,  Thorwaldsen,  of 
whom  he  painted  a  speaking  likeness.  James  Fenimore 
Cooper  was  then  in  Italy :  no  sooner  did  the  novelist  and 
the  artist  meet  than  an  attachment  began,  only  to  end  with 
Cooper's  life.  Morse  owed  to  his  father  a  close  intimacy 
with  Baron  Von  Humboldt,  who  had  corresponded  with  the 
author  of  the  "  American  Geography."  Sometimes  the 
great  explorer  would  seat  himself  beside  Morse  as  he 
painted  at  the  Louvre,  and  discourse  with  the  utmost  charm 
from  his  vast  store  of  observation  and  thought.  During  a 
later  visit  to  Paris,  and  afterward  at  Potsdam,  the  two 
friends,  so  far  apart  in  their  labors,  and,  perhaps,  for  that 
very  reason,  fraternized  with  enthusiasm. 

His  portfolios  filled,  his  commissions  for  pictures  duly 
despatched,  Morse  deemed  his  post-graduate  course  at  an 
end.  On  October  i,  1832,  he  embarked  at  Havre  for  New 
York  on  the  Sully,  for  the  most  memorable  voyage  of  his 
life.  Soon  after  the  shores  of  France  had  receded  from 
view,  the  talk  at  dinner  turned  on  electro-magnetism.  Dr. 
Charles  T.  Jackson,  of  Boston,  a  discoverer  of  anesthesia, 
who  sat  near  Morse,  spoke  of  the  length  of  wire  in  the  coil 
of  an  electro-magnet,  and  a  neighbor  asked,  "  Is  the  velocity 
of  electricity  reduced  by  the  length  of  its  conducting  wire?  " 
Jackson  replied  that  electricity  passes  instantaneously  over 
any  known  length  of  wire.  He  cited  Franklin's  experi- 
ments with  several  miles  of  wire,  in  which  no  appreciable 
time  elapsed  between  a  touch  at  one  end  and  a  spark  at  the 
other.  Then  Morse  uttered  the  conviction  which  deter- 
mined his  life  ever  after:  "If  the  presence  of  electricity  can 
be  made  visible  in  any  part  of  the  circuit,  I  see  no  reason 
why  intelligence  may  not  be  transmitted  instantaneously  by 
electricity." 

The  talk  proceeded,  but  Morse  was  now  silent.  So  far 
as  he  knew,  nobody  else  had  ever  entertained  a  project  for 
electrical  telegraphy.  Of  what  Schilling,  Gauss,  and 


138          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Weber  had  accomplished  in  needle  telegraphy  in  Germany, 
he  was  wholly  ignorant.  Nor  had  news  reached  him  of  the 
still  more  striking  experiments  of  Joseph  Henry,  at  Albany, 
a  few  months  prior.  Here  was  a  remarkable  instance  of 
how  an  inventor  may  independently  devise  a  scheme  long 
before  embodied  in  apparatus  he,  knows  nothing  about. 
In  truth,  the  times  were  ripe  for  practical  telegraphy.  The 
electro-magnet  of  Sturgeon,  the  galvanometer  of  Schweig- 
ger,  had  enabled  several  ingenious  men,  each  advancing  in 
a  path  of  his  own,  to  cross,  at  last,  the  threshold  of  electrical 
communication.  If  this  could  take  place  in  Germany, 
France,  England,  and  America,  why  not  also  on  the  bosom 
of  the  Atlantic  ?  The  feat  was  feasible  wherever  there  were 
brains  to  take  newly  created  tools  and  build  with  them, 
wherever  there  was  imagination  to  pass  from  the  known 
to  the  beyond.  Morse  had  one  of  the  unfailing  marks  of 
greatness.  His  confidence  in  himself  and  in  his  purposes 
could  not  be  shaken.  Many  a  stubborn  obstacle  might 
confront  him.  He  would  overcome  it.  As  his  ship  neared 
Sandy  Hook  he  said  to  her  commander,  Captain  Pell: 
"  Well,  Captain,  should  you  hear  of  the  telegraph  one  of 
these  days,  as  the  wonder  of  the  world,  remember  the  dis- 
covery was  made  on  the  good  ship  Sully." 

Morse  had  unconsciously  prepared  himself,  in  more  ways 
than  one,  for  the  task  he  now  took  up  with  a  stout  heart. 
His  native  ingenuity  had  been  exercised  in  constructing 
his  pump  and  his  sculpturing  machine.  From  boyhood  he 
had  been  drawing  and  sketching,  so  that,  as  the  Sully 
bowled  along  toward  New  York,  he  drew  rapidly  and  pre- 
cisely his  plans  for  a  telegraph.  These  plans,  as  then  out- 
lined, are  preserved  in  the  National  Museum  at  Washington. 
All  his  life  his  imagination  had  swept  broad  horizons,  and 
he  foresaw  what  mankind  would  reap  by  the  instantaneous 
conveying  of  intelligence :  the  prospect  spurred  him  day  and 
night,  and  became  a  sheer  obsession.  On  the  practical  side 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  139 

of  his  project,  he  was  happy,  as  no  rival  inventor  was  happy, 
in  choosing  as  his  servant  the  electro-magnet,  with  its  force- 
ful grasp. 

On  his  return  to  New  York  Morse  found,  to  his  deep 
chagrin,  that  he  had  lost  his  place  in  its  procession  of 
artists.  In  his  absence  of  three  years  he  had  dropped 
from  the  memory  of  many  acquaintances  from  whom,  had  he 
remained  at  home,  patrons  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
recruited.  So  far,  therefore,  from  having  means  to  carry 
out  telegraphic  experiments,  he  had  hardly  cash  enough  to 
pay  his  landlord  and  grocer.  His  commissions  for  por- 
traits were  so  few  that  he  was  obliged  to  give  lessons. 
Only  rigid  economy  enabled  him  to  keep  together  body  and 
soul.  His  room,  which  served  as  a  studio,  workshop,  and 
dormitory,  was  on  the  fifth  floor  of  a  building  on  the  north- 
east corner  of  Beekman  and  Nassau  Streets.  In  succession 
to  that  structure  stands  the  present  Morse  Building.  Near 
the  window  stood  a  lathe  on  which  he  turned  out  the  brass 
apparatus  which  he  devised  and  slowly  improved.  His  diet 
was  mainly  tea  of  his  own  brewing  and  crackers.  From 
Nassau  Street  he  removed  to  University  Place,  but  with  no 
improvement  of  income.  General  Strother,  of  Virginia,  a 
well-known  contributor  to  magazines  as  "  Porte  Crayon," 
thus  sketched  Morse  at  this  crisis  in  his  fortunes : 

"  I  engaged  to  become  Morse's  pupil,  and  subsequently 
went  to  New  York,  and  found  him  in  a  room  in  University 
Place.  He  had  three  other  pupils,  and  I  soon  found  that 
our  professor  had  very  little  patronage.  I  paid  my  fifty 
dollars  for  one  quarter's  instruction.  Morse  was  a  faith- 
ful teacher,  and  took  as  much  interest  in  our  progress  as — 
more,  indeed,  than — we  did  ourselves.  But  he  was  very 
poor.  I  remember  that,  when  my  second  quarter's  pay  was 
due,  my  remittance  did  not  come  as  expected,  and  one  day 
the  professor  came  in,  and  said,  courteously :  '  Well, 
Strother,  my  boy,  how  are  we  off  for  money? ' 

" '  Why,  professor/  I  answered,  *  I  am  sorry  to  say  I 


140          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

have  been   disappointed;   but   I   expect  a   remittance   next 
week/ 

'  Next  week/  he  repeated  sadly ;  '  I  shall  be  dead  by  that 
time/ 

"'Dead,  sir?' 

'.Yes,  dead  by  starvation/ 
"  I  was  distressed  and  astonished.     I  said  hurriedly : 

'  Would  ten  dollars  be  of  any  service  ?  ' 
"  '  Ten  dollars  would  save  my  life ;  that  is  all  it  would 
do/ 

"  I  paid  the  money,  all  that  I  had,  and  we  dined  together. 
It  was  a  modest  meal,  but  good,  and,  after  he  had  finished, 
he  said : 

'  This  is  my  first  meal  for  twenty- four  hours.  Strother, 
don't  be  an  artist.  It  means  beggary.  Your  life  depends 
upon  people  who  know  nothing  of  your  art,  and  care  nothing 
for  you.  A  housedog  lives  better,  and  the  very  sensitive- 
ness that  stimulates  an  artist  to  work,  keeps  him  alive  to 
suffering/  J: 

Morse,  a  man  with  the  utmost  dread  of  debt,  never  made 
known  his  distress  to  friends  who  would  gladly  have  come 
to  his  aid.  And  he  felt  comfort,  dire  though  his  straits 
might  be,  in  the  high  esteem  accorded  him  by  his  fellow- 
artists.  As  President  of  the  Academy  of  Design,  he  ex- 
erted an  influence  as  wide  as  the  Union,  and  his  methods 
were  copied  by  a  score  of  artists  more  successful  than  him- 
self. Of  the  distinction  he  had  won  as  a  painter,  signal 
proof  was  at  hand,  to  be  followed  by  grievous  disappoint- 
ment. As  we  have  already  seen,  he  was  ambitious  to  paint 
historical  canvases,  such  as  were  now  required  for  the  ro- 
tunda of  the  National  Capitol.  A  Congressional  committee 
was  authorized  to  appoint  artists  to  paint  these  pictures. 
The  artists  of  America  urged  the  selection  of  Morse,  who 
stood  second  only  to  Allston,  who  was  not  in  the  running. 
John  Quincy  Adams,  ex-President  of  the  United  States,  a 
member  of  the  committee,  offered  a  resolution  that  foreign 
artists  be  allowed  to  compete,  alleging  the  incompetency  of 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  141 

American  painters.  This  gave  offense  to  American  artists 
and  their  friends.  A  severe  reply  to  Mr.  Adams  appeared 
in  a  New  York  journal  from  the  pen  of  James  Fenimore 
Cooper,  who  did  not  sign  his  letter.  Mr.  Adams  believed 
the  writer  to  be  Morse,  but  Morse  had  never  heard  of  Mr. 
Adams'  affront  until  he  read  Cooper's  letter.  Mr.  Adams 
caused  Morse's  name  to  be  rejected  by  the  committee.  To 
the  last  years  of  his  long  life  the  artist  could  not  recall  this 
blow  without  emotion.  And  yet  the  rebuff  was  a  blessing  in 
disguise :  it  transmuted  Morse  the  painter  into  Morse  the 
inventor.  Had  he  set  up  his  easel  in  the  Capitol,  it  is 
altogether  likely  that  his  telegraphic  project  would  have 
faded  from  his  mind.  In  his  present  dismay  a  group  of 
friends  rallied  to  his  relief  and  comfort,  subscribing  $3,000 
for  a  large  historical  painting  such  as  his  rotunda  picture 
would  have  been.  Morse  chose  as  its  subject  The  Signing 
of  the  First  Compact  on  Board  'the  Mayflower.  When  his 
labors  on  the  telegraph  made  it  impossible  to  proceed  with 
the  work,  he  returned  to  his  friends  their  subscriptions.* 

Rescue  from  another  quarter  was  at  hand,  none  too  soon. 
In  1835,  Morse  was  appointed  professor  of  the  arts  of  de- 
sign in  the  New  York  City  University  at  a  fair  salary.  Be- 
fore his  rooms  were  quite  ready  he  hastily  removed  from 
his  lodgings  in  Greenwich  Lane  to  the  University  building. 
This  structure,  torn  down  in  1894,  was  for  sixty  years  a 
picturesque  landmark  on  Washington  Square.  Morse's 
apartments  were  on  the  third  floor  of  the  north  wing,  look- 
ing forth  on  a  broad  stretch  of  grass  and  trees.  Let  us 
now  hear  how  his  models  took  form,  day  by  day,  under  his 
hands  in  his  new  home : 

"  There,"  he  says,  "  I  immediately  commenced,  with  very 

*In  Scrtbner's  Magazine,  March,  1912,  Edward  Lind  Morse,  him- 
self an  artist,  has  an  illustrated  article  on  his  father's  pictures, 
"Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  the  Painter." 


H2          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

limited  means,  to  experiment  upon  my  invention.  My  first 
instrument  was  made  up  of  an  old  picture  or  canvas  frame 
fastened  to  a  table;  the  wheels  of  an  old  wooden  clock, 
moved  by  a  weight  to  carry  the  paper  forward;  three 
wooden  drums,  upon  one  of  which  the  paper  was  wound 
and  passed  over  the  other  two;  a  wooden  pendulum  sus- 
pended to  the  top  piece  of  the  picture  or  stretching-frame, 
and  vibrating  across  the  paper  as  it  passes  over  the  center 
wooden  drum;  a  pencil  at  the  lower  end  of  the  pendulum, 
in  contact  with  the  paper;  an  electro-magnet  fastened  to  a 
shelf  across  the  picture  or  stretching-frame,  opposite  to  an 
armature  made  fast  to  the  pendulum;  a  type-rule  and  type 
for  breaking  the  circuit,  resting  on  an  endless  band,  com- 
posed of  carpet-binding,  which  passed  over  two  wooden 
rollers,  moved  by  a  wooden  crank,  and  carried  forward  by 
points  projecting  from  the  bottom  of  the  rule  downward 
into  the  carpet-binding ;  a  lever,  with  a  small  weight  on  the 
upper  side,  and  a  tooth  projecting  downward  at  one  end, 
operated  on  by  the  type,  and  a  metallic  fork  also  projecting 
downward  over  two  mercury-cups,  and  a  short  circuit  of 
wire,  embracing  the  helices  of  the  electro-magnet  con- 
nected with  the  positive  and  negative  poles  of  the  battery, 
and  terminating  in  the  mercury-cups.  When  the  instru- 
ment was  at  rest,  the  circuit  was  broken  at  the  mercury- 
cups;  as  soon  as  the  first  type  in  the  type-rule  (put  in  mo- 
tion by  turning  the  wooden  crank)  came  in  contact  with 
the  tooth  on  the  lever,  it  raised  that  end  of  the  lever  and 
depressed  the  other,  bringing  the  prongs  of  the  fork  down 
into  the  mercury,  thus  closing  the  circuit ;  the  current  pass- 
ing through  the  helices  of  the  electro-magnet  caused  the 
pendulum  to  move  and  the  pencil  to  make  an  oblique  mark 
upon  the  paper,  which,  in  the  meantime,  had  been  put  in 
motion  over  the  wooden  drum.  The  tooth  in  the  lever 
falling  into  the  first  two  cogs  of  the  types,  the  circuit  was 
broken  when  the  pendulum  returned  to  its  former  position, 
the  pencil  making  another  mark  as  it  returned  across  the 
paper.  Thus,  as  the  lever  was  alternately  raised  and  de- 
pressed by  the  points  of  the  type,  the  pencil  passed  to  and 
fro  across  the  slip  of  paper  passing  under  it,  making  a  mark 
resembling  a  succession  of  Vs.  The  spaces  between  the 
types  caused  the  pencil  to  mark  horizontal  lines,  long  or 
short,  in  proportion  to  the  length  of  the  spaces. 


MORSE  FIRST  TELEGRAPH  INSTRUMENT 

Fig.  i.  A,  cylinder  from  which  paper  was  unrolled.  B,  cylinder 
on  which  paper  received  its  records.  C,  cylinder  on  which  paper 
was  afterward  wound.  D,  clockwork.  E.  weight  for  clockwork. 
F,  wooden  pendulum  pivoted  at  f.  g,  pencil  carrying  a  weight. 
k,  electro-magnetic  armature.  I,  voltaic  cell. 

Fig.  2.  MORSE  PORT-RULE.  L,  L,  cylinders  united  by  a  linen  belt. 
M,  rule  or  composing  stick.  N,  standard.  O,  O,  lever  suspended 
from  N,  which,  when  depressed,  plunged  into  J  and  K,  two  cups  of 
mercury,  completing  an  electrical  circuit. 


144          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

"  With  this  apparatus,  rude  as  it  was,  and  completed  be- 
fore the  first  of  the  year  1836,  I  was  enabled  to  and  did 
mark  down  telegraphic  intelligible  signs,  and  to  make  and 
did  make  distinguishable  sounds  for  telegraphing.  Having 
arrived  at  that  point,  I  exhibited  it  to  some  of  my  friends 
early  in  that  year,  and,  among  others,  to  Professor  Leonard 
D.  Gale,  who  was  a  colleague  in  the  university.  I  also  ex- 
perimented with  the  chemical  power  of  the  electric  current 
in  1836,  and  succeeded  in  marking  my  telegraphic  signs 
upon  paper  dipped  in  turmeric  and  a  solution  of  the  sulphate 
of  soda  (as  well  as  other  salts),  by  passing  the  current 
through  it.  I  was  soon  satisfied,  however,  that  the  electro- 
magnetic power  was  more  available  for  telegraphic  pur- 
poses, and  possessed  many  advantages  over  any  other,  and 
I  turned  my  thoughts  in  that  direction.  Early  in  1836  I  pro- 
cured forty  feet  of  wire,  and,  putting  it  in  the  circuit,  I 
found  that  my  battery  of  one  cup  was  not  sufficient  to  work 
my  instrument.  This  result  suggested  to  me  the  probability 
that  the  magnetism  to  be  obtained  from  the  electric  current 
would  diminish  in  proportion  as  the  circuit  was  lengthened, 
so  as  to  be  insufficient  for  any  practical  purposes  at  great 
distances ;  and  to  remove  that  probable  obstacle  to  my  suc- 
cess I  conceived  the  idea  of  combining  two  or  more  cir- 
cuits together  in  the  manner  described  in  my  first  patent, 
each  with  an  independent  battery,  making  use  of  the  mag- 
netism of  the  current  on  the  first  to  close  and  break  the 
second;  the  second,  the  third,  and  so  on;  this  contrivance 
was  fully  set  forth  in  my  patents.  My  chief  concern,  there- 
fore, on  my  subsequent  patents,  was  to  ascertain  at  what 
distance  from  the  battery  sufficient  magnetism  could  be  ob- 
tained to  vibrate  a  piece  of  metal,  knowing  that,  if  I  could 
obtain  the  least  motion  at  the  distance  of  eight  or  ten  miles, 
the  ultimate  object  was  within  grasp.  A  practical  mode  of 
communicating  the  impulse  of  one  circuit  to  another,  such 
as  that  described  in  my  patent  of  1840,  was  matured  as 
early  as  the  spring  of  1837,  and  exhibited  then  to  Pro- 
fessor Gale,  my  confidential  friend. 

"  Up  to  the  autumn  of  1837  my  telegraphic  apparatus  ex- 
isted in  so  rude  a  form  that  I  felt  a  reluctance  to  have  it 
seen.  My  means  were  very  limited — so  limited  as  to  pre- 
clude the  possibility  of  constructing  an  apparatus  of  such 
mechanical  finish  as  to  warrant  my  success  in  venturing 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  145 

upon  its  public  exhibition.  I  had  no  wish  to  expose  to 
ridicule  the  representative  of  so  many  hours  of  laborious 
thought.  Prior  to  the  summer  of  1837,  at  which  time  Mr. 
Alfred  Vail's  attention  became  attracted  to  my  telegraph,  I 
depended  upon  my  pencil  for  my  subsistence.  Indeed,  so 
straitened  were  my  circumstances  that,  in  order  to  save 
time  to  carry  out  my  invention  and  to  economize  my  scanty 
means,  I  had  for  some  months  lodged  and  eaten  in  my 
studio,  procuring  my  food  in  small  quantities  from  some 
grocery,  and  preparing  it  myself.  To  conceal  from  my 
friends  the  stinted  manner  in  which  I  lived,  I  was  in  the 
habit  of  bringing  my  food  to  my  room  in  the  evenings,  and 
this  was  my  mode  of  life  many  years."  * 

Morse's  relay,  an  indispensable  link  in  his  telegraph,  was 
an  original  device  of  his  own.  In  days  of  old,  when  letters 
were  borne  by  a  chain  of  messengers,  each  of  them  bore  a 
pouch  for  a  stage  of  his  journey.  A  carrier,  at  the  end 
of  his  trip,  might  arrive  utterly  fagged  out,  but  if  he  had 
just  strength  enough  to  pass  his  budget  to  the  next  man, 
it  was  enough.  In  the  simple  relay  due  to  Morse,  elec- 
tricity, by  a  slight  and  feeble  movement,  trigger-fashion, 
opens  a  new  flood-gate  of  power.  An  attenuated  pulse  from 
a  distance  arrives  barely  able  to  lift  the  armature  of  an 
electro-magnet.  That  lifting  brings  two  wires  into  contact, 
and  a  second  current,  of  much  strength,  carries  the  mes- 
sage for  a  second  long  journey ;  and  so  on,  indefinitely.  To- 
day so  powerful  are  the  currents  in  general  use  that  single 
circuits  of  a  thousand  miles  are  common.  Relaying,  there- 
fore, is  not  so  important  now  as  at  first. 

Professor  Joseph  Henry,  then  the  acknowledged  chief  of 
American  physicists,  whose  discoveries  had  been  adopted  by 
Morse  as  essential  features  of  his  telegraph,  was  ready  to 

*  Taken  by  the  kind  permission  of  D.  Appleton  and  Company, 
New  York,  from  "  The  Life  of  S.  F.  B.  Morse"  by  Samuel  I.  Prime, 
copyright  1874.  Other  extracts  from  the  same  work  follow  in  this 
chapter. 


146          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

answer  any  questions  that  the  inventor  might  submit.  These 
questions  Morse  reduced  to  writing.  Duly  followed  by 
their  answers  they  ran  thus : 

1 i )  "  Have  you  any  reason  to  think  that  magnetism  can- 
not be  induced  in  soft  iron,  at  the  distance  of  a  hundred 
miles  or  more,  by  a  single  impulse  or  from  a  single  battery 
apparatus?"     "No." 

(2)  "  Suppose  that  a  horseshoe  magnet  of  soft  iron,  of  a 
given  size,  receives  its  maximum  of  magnetism  by  a  given 
number  of  coils  around  it,  of  wire,  or  of  ribbon,  and  by  a 
given   sized   battery,   or   number   of   batteries,   at   a  given 
distance  from  the  battery,  does  a  succession  of  magnets  in- 
troduced into  the  circuit  diminish  the  magnetism  of  each  ?  " 
"  No." 

(3)  "  Have  you  ascertained  the  law  which  regulates  the 
proportion  of  quantity  and  intensity  from  the  voltaic  bat- 
tery, necessary  to  overcome  the  resistance  of  the  wire  in 
long  distances,  in  inducing  magnetism  in  soft  iron  ?  "    "  Ohm 
has  determined  it." 

(4)  "  Is  it  quantity  or  intensity  which  has  most  effect 
in   inducing   magnetism   in   soft    iron?"     "Quantity   with 
short,  intensity  with  long,  wires." 

Professor  Henry  wrote  to  Morse  this  inspiring  word : 

"  PRINCETON,  February  24,   1842. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  am  pleased  to  learn  that  you  have  again 
petitioned  Congress,  in  reference  to  your  telegraph,  and  I 
most  sincerely  hope  you  will  succeed  in  convincing  our  rep- 
resentatives of  the  importance  of  the  invention.  In  this 
you  may,  perhaps,  find  some  difficulty,  since,  in  the  minds 
of  many,  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph  is  associated  with 
the  various  chimerical  projects  constantly  presented  to  the 
public,  and  particularly  with  the  schemes  so  popular  a  year 
or  so  ago,  for  the  application  of  electricity  as  a  motive  power 
in  the  arts.  I  have  asserted,  from  the  first,  that  all  attempts 
of  this  kind  are  premature,  and  made  without  a  proper 
knowledge  of  scientific  principles.  The  case  is,  however,  en- 
tirely different  in  regard  to  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph. 
Science  is  now  fully  ripe  for  this  application,  and  I  have 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  147 

not  the  least  doubt,  if  proper  means  be  afforded,  of  the  per- 
fect success  of  the  invention. 

"  The  idea  of  transmitting  intelligence  to  a  distance,  by 
means  of  electrical  action,  has  been  suggested  by  various 
persons,  from  the  time  of  Franklin  to  the  present ;  but  until 
within  the  last  few  years,  or  since  the  principal  discoveries 
in  electro-magnetism,  all  attempts  to  reduce  it  to  practice 
were  necessarily  unsuccessful.  The  mere  suggestion,  how- 
ever, of  a  scheme  of  this  kind  is  a  matter  for  which  little 
credit  can  be  claimed,  since  it  is  one  which  would  naturally 
arise  in  the  mind  of  almost  any  person  familiar  with  the 
phenomena  of  electricity;  but  the  bringing  it  forward  at  the 
proper  moment,  when  the  developments  of  science  are  able 
to  furnish  the  means  of  certain  success,  and  the  devising  a 
plan  for  carrying  it  into  practical  operation,  are  the  grounds 
of  a  just  claim  to  scientific  reputation  as  well  as  to  public 
patronage. 

"  About  the  same  time  with  yourself,  Professor  Wheat- 
stone,  of  London,  and  Dr.  Steinheil,  of  Germany,  proposed 
plans  of  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph :  but  these  differ  as 
much  from  yours  as  the  nature  of  the  common  principle 
would  well  permit;  and,  unless  some  essential  improve- 
ments have  lately  been  made  in  these  European  plans,  I 
should  prefer  the  one  invented  by  yourself. 

"  With  my  best  wishes  for  your  success,  I  remain,  with 
much  esteem, 

"  Yours  truly, 

"  JOSEPH  HENRY." 

Morse's  invention  of  the  relay  enlisted  him  a  lieutenant 
without  whom  his  projects  might  have  come  to  naught. 
This  was  a  student  at  his  University,  Alfred  Vail,  a  son  of 
Judge  Stephen  Vail,  owner  of  the  Speedwell  Iron  Works, 
at  Morristown,  New  Jersey.  In  February,  1837,  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  United  States  Treasury,  at  the  request  of  Con- 
gress, issued  a  circular  of  inquiry  regarding  telegraphs.  A 
copy  of  this  circular  came  into  Morse's  hands.  It  spurred 
him  to  complete  his  model  of  the  telegraph,  and  if  possible, 
have  it  accepted  by  the  Government.  On  September  2, 
1837,  Morse  exhibited  his  apparatus,  somewhat  developed, 


148          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

at  the  University,  with  Alfred  Vail  in  the  audience.  Vail 
was  convinced  that  this  telegraph,  duly  improved  in  form 
and  arrangement  of  parts,  would  open  a  new  world  to 
human  power.  What  was  more  to  the  point,  he  strongly 
desired  to  be  the  man  who  should  remake  the  crude  ap- 
paratus which  clicked  and  swayed  before  him.  His  wish 
rested  on  solid  ground :  he  was  a  mechanic  and  an  inventor 
to  the  tips  of  his  fingers.  But  a  vital  question  was  un- 
settled: Could  electricity  impel  a  message  far  enough  for 
practical  success  ?  When  Morse  showed  him  his  relay,  and 
demonstrated  how  it  lengthened  indefinitely  a  line  of  com- 
munication, Vail  decided  to  embark  in  the  enterprise,  and, 
as  he  afterward  said,  "  sink  or  swim  with  it."  He  per- 
suaded his  father  to  advance  $2,000,  which  was  deemed 
enough  to  build  an  instrument  acceptable  by  Congress,  and 
defray  the  cost  of  patents.  Morse  now  granted  Vail  a 
partnership,  with  one-fourth  interest  in  the  United  States 
patents:  it  being  agreed  that  Vail  should  improve  the  ap- 
paratus to  the  best  of  his  ability,  and  exhibit  it  on  request. 

Vail  rolled  up  his  sleeves  and  began  work.  On  the  upper 
floor  of  a  small  mill  near  his  father's  house  in  Morristown, 
in  months  of  untiring  labor,  he  produced  instruments  which 
were  virtually  perfect.  They  are  used  to-day  in  essentially 
the  forms  he  bestowed  upon  them.  His  family,  with  just 
pride  in  one  of  the  great  inventors  of  all  time,  have  kept 
the  mill  in  repair  to  this  hour.  With  its  crumbling  water- 
wheel  it  recalls  one  of  the  supreme  expansions  of  electrical 
empire.  In  a  case  on  the  main  floor  of  the  National  Mu- 
seum, in  Washington,  is  the  original  Morse  telegraph  as  it 
came  into  the  hands  of  Vail.  Beside  it  are  the  instruments 
developed  from  that  telegraph  a  few  months  thereafter  by 
Vail. 

Morse's  mechanism,  in  its  first  form,  before  Vail  saw  it, 
would  send  a  message  for  only  about  forty  feet.  This 
meant  failure,  unless  much  longer  distances  were  feasible. 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  149 

Here  Professor  Leonard  D.  Gale,  who  occupied  the  chair 
of  chemistry  at  New  York  University,  gave  Morse  help  so 
vital  that  he  was  admitted  to  a  partnership.  Morse  was 
using  only  one  voltaic  cell.  Gale,  drawing  upon  the  tele- 
graph of  Joseph  Henry,  set  up  in  Albany  in  1831,  bade 
Morse  use  several  cells ;  and  told  him  to  wrap  his  electro- 
magnet with  many  coils  of  wire  instead  of  one  coil.  This 
was  promptly  done :  at  once  the  distance  to  which  a  message 
could  be  sent  was  multiplied  a  hundred-fold,  and  all  hazard 
of  failure  was  at  an  end. 

Morse's  signals  were  at  first  numerals  only,  such  as  for 
many  years  had  been  used  in  the  navies  of  the  world.  In 
sending  a  despatch  every  word  had  to  be  translated  into  its 
number,  as  set  forth  in  a  dictionary.  Thus  3842,  let  us 
suppose,  meant  "  wheat."  When  3842  was  received  at  a 
distant  station,  it  was  retranslated  into  "  wheat."  Each 
numeral  was  signaled  by  type  which  bore  protruding  teeth 
of  corresponding  number,  suitably  spaced.  Each  type  was 
mechanically  moved  along  a  tape,  automatically  making  and 
breaking  an  electric  circuit.  From  this  expedient  Morse 
passed  to  his  chief  invention,  that  of  an  alphabet  repre- 
sented by  dots  and  dashes,  produced  by  saw  teeth  and  flat 
spaces  on  the  metallic  bars  which  completed  a  circuit. 

This  code  was  the  final  term  in  a  series  of  symbols, 
worthy  to  follow  that  supreme  stride  in  language,  the  re- 
duction of  spoken  sounds  to  written  signs.  An  alphabetical 
code  of  signals  is  recorded  by  Polybius,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ.  In  that  scheme  the 
twenty-four  Greek  letters  were  distributed  in  five  tablets, 
each  comprising  five  letters,  except  the  fifth  tablet,  which 
had  one  space  vacant.  Torches,  one  to  five,  exposed  on  the 
left  side,  indicated  a  particular  tablet:  similar  torches  on 
the  right  side  indicated  a  particular  letter  on  that  special 
tablet.  This  plan  was  copied,  varied,  and  simplified  in  many 
ways,  issuing  at  last  in  the  codes  of  modern  armies  and 


150          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

navies.  Written  codes  once  occupied  the  leisure  of  Francis 
Bacon,  who  in  "  The  Advancement  of  Learning,"  published 
in  1605,  showed  how  "  a's  "  and  "  b's  "  could  be  arranged 
in  fives  to  signify  an  alphabet.  For  example,  he  represented 

Nvv-iw-^v~fvA-v</-pw^ 

K      !  l*     rjvc         N    )  o        ~p  q        *l? 


A  ROUGH  DRAWING  MADE  BY  MORSE  IN   1870  TO  SHOW  THE   FIRST 
FORM  OF  THE  ALPHABET  AND  THE  CHANGES  TO  -FHE  PRESENT  FORM 

[By  permission  from  The  Century  Magazine,  New  York,  March,  1912.] 

"  e  "  by  "  aabaa."  He  said :  "  This  contrivance  shows  a 
method  of  expressing  and  signifying  one's  mind  to  any  dis- 
tance by  objects  either  visible  or  audible,  provided  that  they 
are  capable  of  two  differences,  as  bells,  speaking-trumpets, 
fire-works,  or  cannon.-"  Abraham  Rees,  in  his  Cyclopedia, 
published  in  1809,  revived  the  code  of  Bacon,  using  "  I  " 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  151 

and  "  2  "  instead  of  "  a  "  and  "  b  "  as  elements.  Thus 
"  e  "  was  denoted  by  "  11211."  In  1829,  James  Swaim,  of 
Philadelphia,  published  "  The  Mural  Diagraph ;  or  the  Art 
of  Conversing  Through  a  Wall,"  in  which  knocks  and 
scratches  were  the  two  diverse  signals.  He  saw  that  fewer 
than  five  signals  would  suffice  for  part  of  his  code ;  "  e," 
the  letter  oftenest  used,  he  represented  by  a  single  scratch; 
one  knock  stood  for  "  a."  In  the  middle  of  several  letters 
he  introduced  a  space,  and  this  defect,  copied  by  Morse,  to 
this  day  afflicts  five  letters  of  his  alphabet.  For  example, 
"  c  "  is  represented  by  "  .  .  .  ",  and  is  thus  liable  to  con- 
fusion with  "  ie,"  "  i  "  being  "  . .  ",  and  "e"  being  ".". 

In  Germany  the  first  electric  telegraphs  employed  a  mag- 
netic needle,  whose  swayings  to  the  right  or  left  signified 
the  alphabet  and  the  ten  numerals.  In  this  field  Schilling 
was  the  pioneer,  probably  as  early  as  1830;  in  his  code  a 
single  movement  to  the  right  was  "  e,"  a  single  motion  to  the 
left  was  "  t,"  ranking  in  its  frequency  second  to  "  e."  Gauss 
and  Weber,  in  1833,  devised  a  like  code ;  they  signified  "  e  " 
by  one  motion  to  the  left.  Three  years  later  Steinheil  de- 
vised a  code  which  differed  but  little  from  its  forerunners.* 

It  is  clear  that  the  German  code-makers  sought  to  give 
the  briefest  signals  to  the  letters  most  in  use.  Long  before 
their  day  printers  had  ascertained  in  what  proportions  the 
various  letters  are  used  in  composition.  In  English  "  e  " 
comes  first,  then  "  t,"  "  a,"  "  n,"  "  o,"  and  "  s  " ;  "  z  "  is 
employed  once  while  "  e  "  is  required  sixty  times.  Alfred 
Vail,  as  Morse  revised  his  signals,  took  counsel  from  The 
Jersey  man,  then  as  now  the  local  newspaper  of  Morristown, 
carefully  noting  in  what  quantities  its  types  .were  divided 
in  its  "  cases."  Morse's  original  recorder,  as  we  have  seen, 
held  a  pen  or  pencil  which,  as  it  swayed  from  side  to  side, 

*  William  B  Taylor  in  the  Smithsonian  Report,  1878,  has  a  memoir 
on  "  Henry  and  the  Telegraph."  At  page  357  he  describes  alpha- 
betic binary  notation  in  its  successive  phases. 


152         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

marked  a  zigzag  on  the  paper  traveling  beneath.  Vail 
improved  this  instrument  by  giving  its  armature  an  up 
and  down  motion,  as  in  the  familiar  sounders  of  to-day 
derived  from  his  invention.  He  thus  registered  dots  and 
dashes  in  a  continuous  line,  scoring  an  inestimable  advance 
on  the  unrecordable  swings  of  German  needles,  or  the  zig- 
zag lines  of  Morse's  first  register.  Alfred  Vail  died  in  Mor- 
ristown  on  January  18,  1859.  It  has  been  repeatedly  de- 
clared that  he  and  not  Morse  devised  the  dot-and-dash 
alphabet,  a  claim  set  forth  in  detail  by  the  late  Franklin 
Leonard  Pope,  in  the  Century  Magazine  for  April,  1888. 
In  the  same  magazine  for  March,  1912,  Edward  Lind  Morse, 
a  son  of  Professor  Morse,  controverts  Mr.  Pope,  adducing 
evidence  newly  discovered.  A  decisive  fact  is  that  Alfred 
Vail,  in  his  book,  "  The  American  Electro-magnetic  Tele- 
graph," issued  in  Philadelphia  in  1845,  gives  an  illustrated 
description  of  the  dot-and-dash  alphabet,  which  he  credits 
to  Professor  Morse,  adding  two  pages  of  messages  in  its 
symbols. 

In  the  article  just  mentioned,  Mr.  Pope  said,  ascribing 
to  Vail  the  dot-and-dash  alphabet :  "  Vail's  conception  of 
an  alphabetical  code,  based  on  the  elements  of  time  and 
space,  has  never  met  with  the  appreciation  that  it  deserves. 
Its  utility  is  not  confined  to  electric  telegraphy.  It  is  used 
to  signal,  by  intermittent  flashes  of  light,  between  far 
distant  stations  of  the  Coast  Survey,  and  between  the  dif- 
ferent vessels  of  a  fleet;  it  is  sounded  upon  whistles  and 
bells  to  convey  intelligence  to  and  from  steamers  cautiously 
feeling  their  way  through  the  obscurity  of  fogs;  and,  in 
fact,  nearly  every  day  brings  to  notice  some  new  field  of 
usefulness  for  this  universal  symbolic  language.  It  ap- 
peals to  almost  every  one  of  our  senses,  for  it  may  be  inter- 
preted with  almost  equal  facility  by  the  sight,  the  touch,  the 
taste,  and  the  hearing.  Indeed,  with  a  charged  electrical 
conductor  and  a  knowledge  of  Vail's  alphabetical  code,  even 
the  transmitting  and  receiving  instruments  of  the  electric 
telegraph  may  be  dispensed  with  in  emergencies." 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  153 

The  amended  Morse  alphabet  was  introduced  to  the  pub- 
lic on  January  24,  1838,  at  New  York  University :  its  signals 
were  transmitted  easily  and  clearly  through  ten  miles  of 
wire.  In  a  few  days  Vail  conducted  an  equally  successful 
exhibition  at  the  Franklin  Institute,  Philadelphia,  amid 
applause.  Judge  Vail,  encouraged  by  these  successes,  now 
authorized  Morse  to  apply  for  patents  in  Europe.  With 
high  hopes  Morse  and  Vail  next  proceeded  to  Washington 
to  exhibit  the  telegraph  to  Congress.  The  Chairman  of  its 
House  Committee  on  Commerce  was  the  Hon.  Francis 
O.  J.  Smith,  of  Maine,  through  whom  an  exhibition  was 
arranged  in  the  Capitol.  President  Van  Buren,  his  Cab- 
inet, and  other  public  men  of  distinction,  on  February  21, 
1838,  viewed  the  telegraph  at  work  with  astonishment  and 
commendation.  The  Hon.  Mr.  Smith  was  instructed  to 
report  a  bill  appropriating  $30,000  to  build  an  experimental 
line  from  Washington  to  Baltimore.  His  faith  in  the  tele- 
graph was  as  fervent  as  that  of  Morse.  He  agreed  to  re- 
sign from  Congress  and  become  a  partner  with  one- fourth 
interest  in  Morse's  patent.  This  fourth  was  contributed  in 
equal  parts  by  Morse  and  Vail,  reducing  Vail's  interest,  be 
it  noted,  from  one-fourth  to  one-eighth.  Smith  was  to  be 
the  legal  adviser  of  the  partnership,  and  accompany  Morse 
to  Europe  to  obtain  patents,  Smith  paying  all  expenses  and 
fees. 

In  the  course  of  a  long  letter  to  Mr.  Smith,  Morse  ut- 
tered a  prophecy  since  more  than  fulfilled : 


"  From  the  enterprising  character  of  our  countrymen, 
shown  in  the  manner  in  which  they  carry  forward  any 
new  project  which  promises  private  or  public  advantage,  it 
is  not  visionary  to  suppose  that  it  would  not  be  long  before 
the  whole  surface  of  this  country  would  be  channeled  for 
those  nerves  which  are  to  diffuse,  with  the  speed  of  thought, 
a  knowledge  of  all  that  is  occurring  throughout  the  land; 
making,  in  fact,  one  neighborhood  of  the  whole  country." 


154         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

But  the  fulfilment  of  Morse's  prophecy  came  with  leaden 
feet.  On  May  16,  1838,  he  sailed  from  New  York  for  Eng- 
land. In  London  he  found  that  Professor  Wheatstone  and 
Mr.  Cooke  had  patented  a  telegraph  based  on  the  deflec- 
tions of  five  magnetic  needles,  and  requiring  six  conductors 
between  its  terminals.  Morse  demonstrated  that  his  sys- 
tem was  much  more  simple  and  economical,  while  it  in- 
cluded an  indelible  record.  He  was  denied  a  patent  for 
England  on  the  ground  that  his  telegraph  had  been  "  pub- 
lished." A  full  description  had  appeared  in  the  London 
Mechanics'  Magazine  for  February  10,  1838,  copied  from 
Silliman's  Journal  for  October,  1837.  Morse  then  pro- 
ceeded to  France,  where  he  had  no  difficulty  in  securing 
a  patent.  He  next  sought  to  introduce  his  telegraph  in  Rus- 
sia, and  accordingly  entered  into  a  contract  to  that  end 
with  the  Russian  Counsellor  of  State,  Count  Meyendorff. 
But  the  Czar  refused  to  ratify  the  contract,  as  he  thought 
that  malevolence  could  easily  interrupt  communication. 

Morse's  visit  to  Europe,  while  a  failure  so  far  as  his 
main  purpose  was  concerned,  enabled  him  to  form  one  of 
the  warmest  friendships  of  his  life.  In  Paris  he  heard  of 
the  achievements  of  Daguerre,  whose  photographs  were 
then  exciting  the  civilized  world.  He  invited  Daguerre  to 
examine  his  telegraph,  and  requested  permission  to  see  the 
results  of  Daguerre's  experiments  in  the  art  of  painting 
with  sunbeams.  Daguerre  received  Morse  with  open  arms, 
and  explained  every  detail  of  his  process,  with  a  view  to 
Morse  introducing  it  in  America.  Thirty  minutes  were  re- 
quired for  an  exposure  at  that  time,  so  that  portraiture  was 
out  of  the  question  until  quick  plates  were  devised.  When 
Morse  returned  to  America  his  brothers,  Sidney  and 
Richard,  erected  on  the  roof  of  their  new  building  on  the 
site  of  the  present  Morse  Building,  on  the  northeast  corner 
of  Nassau  and  Beekman  Streets,  New  York,  "  a  palace  for 
the  sun,"  as  Mr.  S.  E.  Morse  was  pleased  to  na,me  it,  a  room 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  155 

with  a  glass  roof,  in  which  Professor  Morse  experimented 
with  the  new  and  beautiful  art.  While  this  structure  was 
in  progress,  he  pursued  his  experiments  with  great  success 
in  his  rooms  at  the  New  York  University  on  Washington 
Square.  In  a  letter  of  February  10,  1855,  he  said: 

"  As  soon  as  the  necessary  apparatus  was  made,  I  com- 
menced experimenting  with  it.  The  greatest  obstacle  I  had 
to  encounter  was  in  the  quality  of  the  plates.  I  obtained 
the  common  plated  copper  in  coils  at  the  hardware  shops 
which,  of  course,  was  very  thinly  coated  with  silver,  and 
that  impure.  The  first  experiment  crowned  with  any  suc- 
cess was  a  view  of  the  Unitarian  Church,  from  the 
third-story  window  on  the  staircase  of  the  University. 
The  time,  if  I  recollect,  in  which  the  pate  was  exposed 
to  the  action  of  the  light  in  the  camera,  was  about  fifteen 
minutes. 

"  In  my  intercourse  with  Daguerre,  I  specially  conversed 
with  him  in  regard  to  taking  portraits  of  living  persons. 
He  expressed  himself  somewhat  skeptical  as  to  its  prac- 
ticability, only  in  consequence  of  the  time  necessary  for  the 
person  to  remain  immovable.  The  time  for  taking  an  out- 
door view  was  from  fifteen  to  twenty  minutes,  and  this  he 
considered  too  long  a  time  for  any  one  to  remain  suf- 
ficiently still  for  a  successful  result.  No  sooner,  however, 
had  I  mastered  the  process  of  Daguerre,  than  I  commenced 
to  experiment,  with  a  view  to  accomplish  this  desirable  re- 
sult. I  have  now  the  results  of  these  experiments  taken 
in  September,  or  the  beginning  of  October,  1839.  They  are 
full  length  portraits  of  my  daughter,  single,  and  also  in 
group  with  some  of  her  young  friends.  They  were  taken 
out-of-doors,  on  the  roof  of  a  building,  in  the  full  sunlight, 
and  with  the  eyes  closed.  The  time  was  from  ten  to 
twenty  minutes.  .  .  .  For  five  or  six  months  I  pursued  the 
taking  of  daguerreotypes  as  a  means  of  income.  I  aban- 
doned the  practice  to  give  my  exclusive  attention  to  the 
telegraph,  which  required  all  my  time." 

Regarding  the  possibilities  of  this  new  art,  Morse  wrote 
to  Washington  Allston: 


156         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

"  Art  is  to  be  wonderfully  enriched  by  this  discovery. 
How  narrow  and  foolish  the  idea  which  some  express  that  it 
will  be  the  ruin  of  art,  or,  rather,  artists,  for  every  one  will 
be  his  own  painter.  One  effect,  I  think,  will  undoubtedly 
be  to  banish  the  sketchy,  slovenly  daubs  that  pass  for 
spirited  and  learned ;  those  works  which  possess  more  gen- 
eral effect  without  detail,  because,  forsooth,  detail  destroys 
general  effect.  Nature,  in  the  results  of  Daguerre's  process, 
has  taken  the  pencil  into  her  own  hands,  and  she  shows  that 
the  minutest  detail  disturbs  not  the  general  repose.  Artists 
will  learn  how  to  paint,  and  amateurs,  or,  rather,  con- 
noisseurs, how  to  criticise,  how  to  look  at  Nature,  and, 
therefore,  how  to  estimate  the  value  of  true  art.  Our 
studies  will  now  be  enriched  with  sketches  from  Nature 
which  we  can  store  up  during  the  summer,  as  the  bee 
gathers  her  sweets  for  winter,  and  we  shall  thus  have  rich 
materials  for  composition,  and  an  exhaustless  store  for  the 
imagination  to  feed  upon." 

Morse  became  so  skilful  with  his  camera  that,  in  No- 
vember, 1840,  he  records  taking  a  portrait  in  ten  seconds. 
As  Daguerre's  process  was  not  patented  in  the  United 
States,  a  good  many  enterprising  young  fellows  came  to 
Morse  for  instruction  in  photography,  that  they  might 
travel  through  the  country  and  reap  a  goodly  harvest.  In 
this  way  he  launched  at  least  twenty  camerists  who  acquired 
local  fame. 

Apart  from  his  friendship  with  Daguerre,  Morse's  visit 
of  ten  months  to  Europe  bore  no  fruit  whatever.  He  came 
home  in  April,  1839,  having  failed  to  induce  any  govern- 
ment to  adopt  his  telegraph.  The  only  patent  he  secured, 
that  from  France,  was  tied  up  with  conditions  which  ren- 
dered it  worthless.  Meanwhile  not  only  had  Congress 
omitted  to  vote  the  $30,000,  which  Morse  and  his  partners 
had  confidently  expected,  but  the  House  had  fallen  into 
utter  apathy  regarding  the  whole  scheme  of  electric  teleg- 
raphy. At  this  ebb  in  their  fortunes,  Judge  Vail  became 
thoroughly  disheartened,  and  no  wonder.  His  advances  in 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  157 

cash  were  much  more  than  at  the  outset  Morse  had  esti- 
mated. His  son  had  reconstructed,  or,  rather,  recreated, 
the  instruments  of  Morse.  He  had  conducted  the  exhibi- 
tions in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Washington,  which 
had  been  reported  with  eulogy  to  Congress.  To  secure  the 
cooperation  of  Mr.  Chairman  Smith,  Alfred  Vail  had 
parted  with  one-half  his  original  interest  in  the  net  returns 
from  the  Morse  patent.  And  what  added  to  Judge  Vail's 
depression  of  mind  was  the  financial  panic  which  had  just 
swept  the  country,  laying  a  heavy  hand  upon  the  Speed- 
well Iron  Works.  But  Morse,  although  near  the  end  of 
his  tether,  was  no  Mr.  Ready-to-halt.  His  hopes,  dashed 
and  chilled,  were  irrepressible.  He  was  willing  to  take  a 
slice  of  bread  if  refused  a  loaf.  He  modified  his  request 
for  aid  from  Congress,  asking  a  grant  of  $3,500  to  build  a 
line  between  the  White  House  or  one  of  the  Departments, 
and  the  Capitol,  or  the  Navy  Yard.  This  appeal  met  with 
no  response.  Faint,  yet  pursuing,  Morse  wrote  to  Smith: 

"  While,  so  far  as  the  invention  itself  is  concerned, 
everything  is  favorable,  I  find  myself  without  sympathy 
or  help  from  any  who  are  associated  with  me,  whose  in- 
terest one  would  think  would  impel  them  at  least  to  in- 
quire if  they  could  render  some  assistance.  For  nearly 
two  years  past,  I  have  devoted  all  my  time  and  scanty 
means,  living  on  a  mere  pittance,  denying  myself  all  pleas- 
ures, and  even  necessary  food,  that  I  might  have  a  sum  to 
put  my  telegraph  into  such  a  position  before  Congress  as 
to  insure  success  to  the  common  enterprise.  I  am  crushed 
for  want  of  means,  and  means  of  so  trifling  a  character,  too, 
that  they  who  know  how  to  ask  (which  I  do  not)  could  ob- 
tain in  a  few  hours.  ...  I  will  not  run  in  debt  if  I  lose  the 
whole  matter.  So,  unless  I  have  the  means  from  some 
source,  I  shall  be  compelled,  however  reluctantly,  to  leave 
it;  and,  if  I  once  get  engaged  in  my  profession  again,  the 
telegraph  and  its  proprietors  will  urge  me  from  it  in 
vain.  .  .  . 

" '  Hope   deferred  maketh  the   heart  sick.'     It  is  true, 


158         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

and  I  have  known  the  full  meaning  of  it.  Nothing  but  the 
consciousness  that  I  have  an  invention  which  is  to  mark 
an  era  in  human  civilization,  and  which  is  to  contribute  to 
the  happiness  of  millions,  would  have  sustained  me  through 
so  many  and  such  lengthened  trials  of  patience  in  perfect- 
ing it." 

In  December,  1842,  Morse  took  his  final  stand;  once  again 
he  applied  for  aid  to  Congress,  resolved  that  in  case  he 
received  no  for  an  answer  he  would  return  to  his  easel 
and  abandon  telegraphy  for  good  and  all.  He  was  greatly 
heartened  when  the  Committee  on  Commerce,  for  the  sec- 
ond time,  recommended  an  appropriation  of  $30,000  in 
furtherance  of  his  plans.  The  bill  passed  by  a  vote  of  89 
Yeas  to  83  Nays ;  all  the  New  Jersey  votes,  six  in  number, 
thanks  to  the  activity  of  Judge  Vail,  were  Yeas.  Had  these 
votes  been  withheld,  or  adverse,  the  appropriation  would 
have  been  lost.  In  the  Senate,  during  the  last  hour  of  its 
session,  March  3,  1843,  the  bill  was  passed,  and  then  duly 
signed  by  the  President.  Morse  long  afterward  wrote  to  a 
friend : 

"  This  was  the  turning  point  in  the  history  of  the  tele- 
graph. My  personal  funds  were  reduced  to  the  fraction  of 
a  dollar;  and  had  the  passage  of  the  bill  failed  from  any 
cause,  there  would  have  been  little  prospect  of  another  at- 
tempt on  my  part  to  introduce  to  the  world  my  new  in- 
vention." 

On  March  4,  1843,  Morse  wrote  to  Vail : 

"  You  will  be  glad  to  learn,  doubtless,  that  my  bill  has 
passed  the  Senate  without  a  division,  and  without  opposi- 
tion, so  that  now  the  telegraphic  enterprise  begins  to  look 
bright.  .  .  .  The  whole  delegation  of  your  State,  without 
exception,  deserve  the  highest  gratitude  of  us  all." 

Morse  forthwith  became  superintendent  of  the  telegraph 
line  which  was  to  unite  Washington  with  Baltimore.  His 


Born  September  25,  1807.     Died  January  19,  1859 

[From  a  daguerreotype  taken  about  1853,  in  the  possession  of  his  son,  James 
Cumming  Vail,  Morristown,  N.  J.] 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  159 

salary  was  $2,500  a  year.  On  March  31,  Vail  became  as- 
sistant superintendent:  three  dollars  a  day  was  his  modest 
remuneration,  plus  expenses.  He  began  work  with  his 
customary  skill  and  verve.  He  soon  found  out  how  to 
unite  several  circuits  with  a  single  battery,  a  feat  of  im- 
portance as  telegraphy  lengthened  and  interlaced  its  lines 
He  further  improved  his  register,  and  in  masterly  fashion. 
Instead  of  either  pencil  or  pen,  liable  to  become  blunt  or 
broken  with  use,  he  attached  a  steel  point  to  his  armature, 
which  embossed  the  paper  strip  as  it  rolled  around  its  cylin- 
der. To  aid  this  indenting  effect,  the  cylinder  was  belted 
with  a  narrow  groove,  just  where  it  received  the  steel  point. 
In  one  detail,  Vail's  judgment,  usually  sound,  was  at  fault. 
With  British  experience  in  mind,  he  believed  that  his  wires 
should  be  laid  in  underground  conduits.  Defective  insula- 
tion brought  this  plan  to  failure.  Then  he  resorted,  and 
with  success,  to  aerial  suspension,  as  advised  by  Professor 
Henry.  This  method,  had  Vail  but  known  it,  had  long  be- 
fore approved  itself  in  the  lines  of  Dyar  in  America,  and  of 
Weber  in  Germany.  Ezra  Cornell,  who  had  been  a  traveling 
agent  for  a  patent  plow,  took  the  contract  for  rearing  the 
poles  and  suspending  their  wires.  This  was  his  first  venture 
in  telegraphic  construction,  an  industry  which  yielded  him  a 
handsome  fortune,  part  of  which  went  to  found  Cornell 
University  at  Ithaca,  New  York. 

Cornell  began  stringing  his  wires  from  pole  to  pole 
in  Washington,  on  April  i,  1843;  on  May  23,  he  belted  the 
last  insulator  at  Mount  Clare,  in  Baltimore.  A  Grove  bat- 
tery of  one  hundred  cups  was  provided,  and  the  instruments, 
through  their  forty  miles  of  wire,  throbbed  with  a  grati- 
fying resonance.  Next  day,  May  24,  Morse  sent  from 
Washington  to  Vail,  in  Baltimore,  the  famous  message  sug- 
gested by  Miss  Ellsworth,  "  What  hath  God  wrought !  " 
(Numbers  xxiii:23).  The  signals  received  at  Baltimore 
were  repeated  to  Washington.  Then  followed  a  familiar 


160         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

conversation  between  the  two  cities,  the  first  in  a  series 
which  shall  end  only  with  the  last  page  of  American  history. 
At  first,  both  in  Washington  and  Baltimore,  skepticism  pre- 
vailed as  to  this  mysterious  telegraph.  But  this  was  to  be 
banished,  and  within  two  days  after  Miss  Ellsworth's 
despatch;  when  on  May  26,  the  National  Democratic  Con- 
vention met  in  Baltimore,  to  nominate  candidates  for  its 
ticket,  the  Vice-Presidency  was  offered  to  Silas  Wright. 
His  declination,  received  by  telegraph,  was  hailed  by  the 
delegates  with  incredulity.  When  their  messenger  from 
Washington  confirmed  the  telegram,  doubts  were  at  an  end. 

But  such  faith  in  the  telegraph  as  might  exist  bore  little 
fruit  in  works.  For  its  first  four  days  its  income  was,  in 
all,  one  cent — at  the  Washington  office.  On  the  fifth  day 
the  receipts  were  twelve  and  a  half  cents.  The  sixth  day 
was  Sunday.  On  the  seventh  day  sixty  cents  came  in ;  next 
day,  one  dollar  and  thirty-two  cents;  next  day,  one  dollar 
and  four  cents.  Almost  two  years  later,  for  the  quarter 
ending  March  31,  1846,  the  receipts  of  the  line  were  only 
$203.43.  Let  us  recall  the  rates :  at  first  one  cent  for  four 
characters:  afterward,  from  Washington  to  Baltimore,  ten 
cents  for  ten  words,  and  one  cent  for  each  additional  word ; 
from  Washington  to  New  York,  fifty  cents  for  ten  words, 
and  five  cents  for  each  extra  word. 

Disappointing  as  his  financial  returns  undoubtedly  were, 
Morse  now  carried  out  a  highly  important  scientific  applica- 
tion of  his  telegraph.  In  1839  he  had  suggested  to  Arago, 
in  Paris,  that  the  telegraph  could  determine  longitudes 
with  a  new  accuracy.  On  June  12,  1844,  Captain  Charles 
Wilkes,  who  had  commanded  the  famous  expedition  around 
the  world,  ascertained  by  telegraph  that  Battle  Monument 
Square,  in  Baltimore,  is  i  minute,  34.868  seconds  east  of 
the  Capitol  in  Washington.  About  this  time  Morse  recast 
and  improved  his  alphabet,  failing,  however,  to  drop  the 
spacings,  which,  to  this  day,  mar  his  code.  In  European 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE 


161 


codes  these  spacirigs  do  not  occur.  In  a  minor  detail  of 
communication,  Morse  now  inaugurated  a  practice  which 
has  greatly  economized  the  time  and  cost  of  telegraphy,  by 
devising  brief  and  simple  abbreviations  of  the  words  and 
phrases  most  in  use.  His  lists,  much  extended  since  his 
day,  have  spread  from  telegraphers  to  stenographers  and 
ordinary  note-takers,  with  gain  all  round.  Usually  the  let- 
ters chosen  for  an  abbreviation  suggest  the  word,  as  "  ate  " 


THE  BALTIMORE  RECORDING  INSTRUMENT  OF  1844 
Now  in  the  National  Museum,  Washington,  D.  C. 

for  "  Atlantic."  Parallel  with  the  shortening  of  words  has 
proceeded  the  development  of  secret  codes.  In  these  codes, 
the  words  must  be  as  unlike  as  possible,  and  each,  of  course, 
bears  no  suggestion  of  the  phrase  or  the  sentence  which  it 
signifies.  "  Medehulp  "  in  a  cable  code  means  "  your  order 
for  additional  goods  received  too  late  to  ship  with  previous 
order :  will  forward  at  once."  By  an  international  agree- 
ment, no  code-word  may  exceed  ten  letters.  Astonishing 
accuracy  is  attained  in  handling  these  codes,  especially  when 


1 62          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

one  remembers  that  the  words  follow  one  another  in  arbi- 
trary succession,  in  what  seems  to  be  sheer  nonsense.  An 
operator  in  New  York,  receiving  code  messages  from  an 
Atlantic  cable,  has  fallen  into  but  one  error  in  a  year  and  a 
half.  But  from  the  fruitage  of  to-day  let  us  return  to  the 
hard  work  of  planting  the  seeds  of  modern  telegraphy. 

Congress,  in  addition  to  its  original  grant  of  $30,000, 
voted  $8,000  toward  the  maintenance  of  the  line  joining 
Washington  with  Baltimore.  Further  aid,  urgently  needed, 
was  refused.  Morse  offered  his  patents  to  the  Government 
for  $100,000.  The  Hon.  Cave  Johnson,  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, reported :  "  The  operation  of  the  telegraph  between 
Washington  and  Baltimore  has  not  satisfied  me  that,  under 
any  rate  of  postage  that  could  be  adopted,  its  revenues 
could  be  made  equal  to  its  expenditures."  Thus  ended  the 
hopes  of  Morse  that  his  telegraph  should  be  a  governmental 
mode  of  communication,  supplementing  the  Post  Office,  as 
now  in  Great  Britain  and  the  leading  countries  of  Conti- 
nental Europe.  Morse  and  his  fellow-owners  of  the  tele- 
graph patent,  thus  finding  impossible  the  national  adoption 
of  their  enterprise,  on  May  15,  1845,  organized  "  The  Mag- 
netic Telegraph  Company,"  for  the  purpose  of  constructing 
and  operating  a  telegraph  line  from  New  York  to  Wash- 
ington. All  concerned  were  confident  that  the  longer  a 
line,  within  reasonable  limits,  the  more  business  per  mile 
it  would  enjoy.  Their  company,  the  first  of  many  such 
companies  in  America,  received  subscriptions  to  the  amount 
of  $15,000.  A  leading  house  of  bankers  in  Washington, 
Corcoran  &  Riggs,  headed  the  list  with  $1,000.  Among  the 
subscribers  of  $500  each  was  Ezra  Cornell.  This  time 
Morse's  hopes  were  not  merely  fulfilled,  bu't  exceeded. 
With  the  extension  of  wires  from  Baltimore  to  New  York 
began  the  triumphs  of  American  telegraphy.  As  soon  as 
April  20,  1846,  he  was  able  to  say :  "  A  few  weeks  more 
and  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Wash- 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  163 

ington  will  be  connected,  428  miles;  and  also  New  York, 
Albany,  and  Buffalo,  433  miles.  Besides  these  are  many 
branch  lines  of  30  to  40  miles  each.  I  have  a  telegram 
in  which  94  characters  were  distinctly  written  in  one  min- 
ute. In  one  instance  a  battery  of  two  cups  operated  a  line 
of  130  miles  with  perfect  success." 

As  to  the  speed  of  transmission,  he  had  this  to  say  on 
December  15,  1846: 

"  The  President's  message,  on  the  subject  of  the  war  with 
Mexico,  was  accurately  transmitted  to  the  Baltimore  Sun 
at  the  rate  of  99  letters  per  minute.  My  skilful  operators 
have  printed  these  characters  at  the  rate  of  as  many  as  177 
letters  per  minute.  .  .  .  He  must  be  an  expert  penman  who 
can  write  legibly  more  than  100  letters  per  minute;  conse- 
quently, my  mode  of  communication  equals,  or  nearly 
equals,  the  most  expeditious  mode  known  of  recording 
thought" 

Morse  at  first  found  Vail  not  quite  careful  in  sending  his 
signals.  He  wrote  him :  "  You  confound  your  '  m's,'  *  t's,' 
and  '  1's/  and  do  not  separate  your  words.  Sometimes  your 
dots  were  not  made.  It  is  not  the  fault  of  our  local  battery 
here,  for  at  other  times  it  worked  perfectly  well,  but  for 
want,  I  think,  of  perfect  contact  in  touching  at  your  end. 
...  Be  particular  to-day.  .  .  ."  And  again :  "  Strike  your 
dots  firmer,  and  do  not  separate  the  two  dots  of  the  f  O  '  so 
far  apart.  Condense  your  language  more,  leaving  out 
'  the  '  whenever  you  can,  and  when  '  h '  follows  '  t,'  separate 
them  so  that  they  shall  not  be  e  8.'  The  beginning  of  a 
long  common  word  will  generally  be  sufficient — if  not,  I  can 
easily  ask  you  to  repeat  the  whole,  for  example, — '  Butler 
made  communication  in  favor  of  majority  rule.' — '  Butler 
made  com-  in  fav—  of  maj.  rule '.  .  .  ." 

Although  Vail's  expertness  as  an  operator  came  to  him 
slowly,  his  commanding  ability  as  an  inventor  was  in  full 


i64 


LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


swing  from  the  morning  that  telegraphy  was  installed  as  a 
business  enterprise.  At  first  a  receiving  relay  weighed  185 
pounds :  this  he  rapidly  reduced.  To-day  an  effective  relay 
is  but  four  ounces  in  weight.  Vail,  who  had  the  ear  and 
touch  of  an  accomplished  musician,  soon  found  that  he  could 
send  well-timed  free-hand  signals,  discarding  the  port-rule, 
or  type-carrier,  of  Morse,  with  its  incidental  botheration. 
In  a  few  weeks  he  constructed  a  circuit-closer  in  the  shape 
of  a  finger  key,  by  which  signals  could  be  readily  sent.  A 
spring  lever  form  of  this  device,  suggested  by  Thomas  C. 
Avery,  of  New  York,  was  next  built  and  improved.  Its 


VAIL'S  ORIGINAL  FINGER  KEY  OF  1844 
[In  the  cabinet  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Co.,  New  York.] 

essential  features  have  been  inherited  by  every  key  manipu- 
lated at  this  hour  by  operators  throughout  America. 

A  further  simplification  of  equal  worth  entered  next,  and 
quite  unbidden.  Operators  of  quick  ear  soon  interpreted 
signals  solely  by  the  sound  of  the  armature-lever.  Morse 
always  regarded  the  permanent  marking  of  signals  on 
paper  as  the  core  of  his  system,  and,  dreading  liability  for 
error,  he  stoutly  opposed  this  reading  by  ear.  But  it  ex- 
tended itself  irresistibly;  it  was  simple,  and,  to  everybody's 
astonishment,  it  was  accurate  as  well.  Hearing  was  dis- 
covered to  be  able  to  do  new  work,  and  to  do  it  perfectly. 
The  Morse  recorder  has  passed  out  of  use  except  in  schools 
where,  to  learners  in  pairs,  it  declares  how  they  stand  in 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  165 

speed  and  accuracy  from  day  to  day.  Sounds,  at  first 
merely  incidental,  are  now  the  one  means  of  receiving  a 
telegram.  To  augment  their  efficiency,  modern  receiving 
instruments  are  manufactured  to  emit  a  loud,  clear  note. 

In  the  instrument  of  Morse  and  Vail,  as  modified  by  later 
inventors,  much  survives  of  the  simple  apparatus  devised 
by  Joseph  Henry  in  Albany,  in  1831,  a  year  before  Morse 
embarked  on  the  Sully.  Henry's  battery  of  several  cells, 
affording  him  an  intense  current,  his  wire  circuit,  his  electro- 
magnet of  many  coils,  his  armature-lever,  and  the  bell 
struck  by  that  lever,  all  serve  to-day  on  the  operator's  table, 
greatly  bettered  in  form  and  material,  but  changed  in  no 
essential  particular.  Henry's  rough-and-ready  transmitter, 
a  wire  dipped  in  mercury,  is  replaced  by  Vail's  finger-key. 
The  adjustable  stops,  between  which  the  armature  plays, 
borrowed  by  Henry  from  Page,  maintain  themselves  as  in- 
dispensable. Prior  to  1837,  the  American  telegraph  was 
the  work  of  Morse  and  Henry.  During  the  seven  years 
which  followed  1837,  it  was  remodeled  by  Vail.  Gradually 
the  contributions  of  Morse  have  fallen  into  disuse,  and  the 
instrument  of  to-day  is  virtually  due  to  Henry  and  Vail. 

Often  the  question  arises,  Why  did  not  Vail  lay  claim  to 
perfecting  the  Morse  apparatus?  The  late  Franklin 
Leonard  Pope  discussed  this  question  in  the  Century  Maga- 
zine, of  April,  1888,  in  an  article  already  mentioned.  After 
a  review  of  the  facts,  he  concluded  that  Vail  deemed  that 
he  had  merely  improved  the  inventions  of  Morse ;  although 
in  reality,  he  transformed  them  almost  beyond  recognition. 
Vail,  too,  seems  to  have  believed  that,  as  a  partner  with 
Morse,  he  was  debarred  from  taking  out  patents  in  his  own 
name.  Moreover,  the  Morse  patents  were  constantly  and 
bitterly  assailed  in  the  courts,  and  Vail,  as  a  co-proprietor  of 
them,  could  neither  with  honor,  nor  safety,  set  up  any  per- 
sonal claims.  To  use  his  own  words,  inscribed  on  a  model 
of  his  indenting  register,  he  "  wished  to  preserve  the  peace- 


166         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

ful  unity  of  the  invention."  In  the  joint  venture  of  Morse 
and  himself,  Morse  was  undoubtedly  the  captain  of  the  ship. 
But  he  owed  vastly  more  to  his  first  mate  than  he  ever  ac- 
knowledged. 

While  Morse  was  experimenting  with  his  telegraph,  in 
the  summer  of  1842,  he  proved  that  its  signals  could  take 
their  way  through  water  as  well  as  overland.  He  took  cop- 
per wire,  one-twelfth  of  an  inch  thick,  and  insulated  it  with 
pitch,  tar,  and  India  rubber.  The  cable  thus  produced  was 
laid  from  the  Battery  at  the  foot  of  Manhattan  Island  to 
Governor's  Island,  about  a  mile  off.  Three  or  four  char- 
acters had  been  transmitted,  when  the  line  was  severed  by 
the  anchor  of  a  passing  ship.  During  the  following  De- 
cember Morse  repeated  this  experiment,  with  gratifying 
success,  in  the  canal  at  Washington.  He  naturally  regarded 
with  confidence  the  project  for  an  Atlantic  cable.  On  Sep- 
tember 30,  1854,  he  wrote  to  Faraday: 

"  Taking  for  granted  a  successful  result  of  the  experi- 
ment on  the  propulsion  of  a  current  to  the  required  distance, 
that  is  to  say,  from  Newfoundland  to  Ireland,  I  have  pro- 
posed that  the  cable  conductor  be  constructed  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner :  The  conducting  wires  of  the  circuit  to  be 
the  purest  copper,  each  not  less  than  one-eighth  of  an  inch 
in  sectional  diameter.  Each  wire  to  be  insulated  to  the 
thickness  also  of  one-eighth  of  an  inch  with  gutta  percha. 
If  it  should  be  decided  by  the  company  that,  in  the  first 
instance,  a  single  conductor  shall  be  laid  down,  then  a  thin 
tube  of  lead,  about  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  is 
to  be  drawn  over  the  wire  conductor  and  its  gutta  percha 
covering,  and  then  a  series  of  strands  of  common  iron  wire 
and  of  hempen  cord,  or  rope  yarn  of  the  same  size,  say  four 
or  five  of  the  former  and  the  rest  of  the  latter,  are  to  be  laid 
parallel  with  the  interior  conducting  wire,  on  the  exterior  of 
the  tube,  and  these  are  to  be  confined  in  place  by  two  spiral 
cords  wound  in  contrary  directions  and  crossing  each 
other  around  the  cable  at  intervals,  of,  say,  nine  or  twelve 
inches." 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  167 

When  the  steam  frigate  Niagara  was  commissioned  to  lay 
the  first  Atlantic  cable,  Morse  was  an  invited  guest.  He 
took  a  keen  interest  in  the  unremitting  labor  of  paying  out 
the  line  and  testing  its  conductivity.  On  the  fateful-morn- 
ing of  August  n,  1857,  the  line  parted  abruptly,  and  Morse 
was  obliged  to  return  to  England.  Next  year  a  second 
cable  was  laid,  only  to  prove  a  failure.  For  a  decisive  ex- 
periment, the  Great  Eastern,  much  the  largest  steamship  of 
her  day,  was  laden  with  a  strong  and  carefully  manufactured 
cable,  sailing  on  July  13,  1866.  Two  weeks  thereafter  the 
wire  was  landed  on  the  American  shore,  to  enter  upon  long 
and  faithful  service. 

But  let  us  turn  back  a  page  or  two  of  telegraphic  his- 
tory, and  note  how  Morse,  as  soon  as  his  telegraph  was  an 
assured  triumph  in  America,  sought  to  introduce  it  in 
Europe.  On  this  errand  he  sailed  from  New  York  on 
August  6,  1845,  arriving  in  Liverpool  nine  days  afterward. 
The  General  Commercial  Telegraph  Company  of  London 
was  then  operating  the  British  telegraphs  with  Wheatstone 
and  Cooke's  needle  instruments,  which  required  two  wires 
to  complete  a  circuit,  with  only  one-half  the  speed  of  the 
Morse  apparatus.  He  offered  the  Company  his  instruments 
for  a  thousand  pounds,  plus  one-fourth  of  the  cash  they 
would  save  their  purchasers.  This  offer  was  declined.  On 
October  9,  Morse  wrote  to  his  daughter: 

"  I  know  not  what  to  say  of  my  telegraphic  matters  here 
yet.  There  is  nothing  decided  upon,  and  I  have  many  ob- 
stacles to  contend  against,  particularly  the  opposition  of  the 
proprietors  of  existing  telegraphs.  But  that  mine  is  the  best 
system,  I  have  now  no  doubt;  all  that  I  have  seen,  while 
they  are  ingenious,  are  more  complicated,  more  expensive, 
less  efficient,  and  easier  deranged.  It  may  take  some 
time  to  establish  the  superiority  of  mine  over  the  others,  for 
there  is  the  usual  array  of  prejudice  and  interest  against  a 
system  which  throws  others  out  of  use." 


i68          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

In  Vienna  Morse  exhibited  his  telegraph  to  the  Emperor 
and  Empress  of  Austria.  Proceeding  to  Paris,  he  renewed 
his  acquaintance  with  Arago,  who  presented  him  and  his 
telegraph  to  the  French  Chamber  of  Deputies.  Here,  as 
elsewhere  throughout  his  tour,  Morse  received  hearty  com- 
mendation, only  vocal,  however,  and  with  this  and  nothing 
else  to  cheer  him  he  returned  home.  In  1846  his  American 
patent  was  reissued:  it  defined  with  new  precision  the 
claims  of  his  original  patent  of  1840.  From  day  to  day  he 
could  watch,  with  fatherly  pride,  the  building  of  telegraph 
lines  as  they  radiated  from  New  York,  Boston,  and  Wash- 
ington. It  was  apprehended  that  the  Hudson  River  might 
not  be  crossed  with  success.  A  cable,  duly  laid,  worked 
perfectly  from  the  moment  of  its  immersion.  Regarding  a 
printing  telegraph,  he  wrote  on  April  20,  1846,  to  M. 
Brequet,  a  French  electrician : 

".  .  .  My  friend  and  co-proprietor  in  the  Telegraph,  Mr. 
Vail,  some  time  in  1837,  was  intent  on  producing  a  print- 
ing telegraph,  and  gave  the  project  much  thought.  I  uni- 
formly discouraged  him,  however,  on  the  ground,  not  that 
such  a  plan  was  impracticable,  but,  in  comparison  with  the 
method  I  had  devised,  worthless,  since,  were  such  a  mode 
perfectly  accomplished  and  in  actual  use,  my  more  simple 
mode  would  inevitably  supersede  the  more  complicated 
mode.  Mr.  Vail,  in  his  work  entitled  '  The  American 
Electro-magnetic  Telegraph,'  discusses  the  whole  matter. 
Experience  has  proved  that  when  my  system  is  put  to  the 
test  in  competition  with  the  common  letter-printing  tele- 
graphs of  Europe,  mine  has  proved  superior.  In  Vienna, 
for  example,  Mr.  Bain's  letter-printer,  the  most  ingenious  of 
all,  was  examined  with  mine  publicly  before  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  learned  assemblies  ever  convened  in  that 
capital,  and  the  American  Telegraph  carried  the  day  by 
acclamation,  and  is  now  adopted  by  that  Government." 

Until  1847,  when  Morse  was  fifty-six  years  of  age,  he  was 
all  but  homeless  from  the  day  he  left  his  father's  house  in 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  169 

his  youth.  Soon  after  his  marriage  in  1818,  he  had  estab- 
lished himself  in  New  Haven,  but  he  had  to  earn  his  bread 
elsewhere,  and  seldom  could  he  sit  by  his  hearthstone. 
This  was  a  severe  hardship  to  a  man  of  his  warm  domestic 
feelings.  To  be  virtually  homeless  sharpened  the  sting  of 
poverty,  and  he  may  well  have  often  doubted  whether  he 
had  been  wise  in  choosing  art  as  his  career.  Now,  at  last, 
not  his  easel,  but  his  telegraph,  began  to  yield  him  a  mod- 
erate income,  with  a  prospect  of  steady  increase.  He  felt 
warranted  in  rearing  a  roof-tree  for  his  remaining  years, 
and  in  sharing  it  with  a  wife.  As  a  homestead  he  chose 
Locust  Grove,  near  Poughkeepsie,  New  York ;  and  he  mar- 
ried Miss  Sarah  E.  Griswold,  the  daughter  of  a  cousin. 
He  next  placed  his  business  affairs  in  the  hands  of  a  trusty 
friend,  the  Hon.  Amos  Kendall,  formerly  United  States 
Postmaster-General,  and  then  retired  to  what  he  hoped 
would  be  rest  and  peace.  But  this  hope  was  unfulfilled ;  he 
was  constantly  obliged  to  withstand  infringers  of  his 
patents.  Again  and  again  in  the  courts  he  had  to  adduce 
evidence  that  always  won  him  victory.  But  these  victories 
were  costly,  and  robbed  him  of  a  goodly  part  of  earnings 
which,  even  in  the  gross,  were  but  moderate.  A  well- 
informed  estimate  of  his  net  returns  from  his  American 
patents  places  them  at  $80,000,  and  no  more.  His  first 
patent,  granted  in  1840,  expired  June  19,  1854.  It  was  ex- 
tended for  seven  years,  chiefly  through  the  recommendation 
of  Professor  Joseph  Henry. 

When  legal  contentions  were  intermitted,  Morse's  life  at 
Locust  Grove  was  placid  and  simple.  He  rose  at  half-past 
six  o'clock,  and  remained  in  his  study  until  eight  o'clock, 
when  he  had  breakfast.  Most  of  his  day  was  occupied 
with  reading  and  writing.  On  a  table  at  his  side  stood  a 
telegraph  key :  by  its  aid  he  could  converse  with  friends  hun- 
dreds of  miles  away.  He  had  conferred  a  nervous  system 
upon  America ;  it  vibrated  at  his  will,  greatly  to  his  aid  and 


i;o          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

cheer.  Some  years  after  taking  up  his  residence  at  Locust 
Grove,  he  bought  a  commodious  house  at  No.  5  West 
Twenty-second  Street,  New  York,  the  third  house  west  of 
Fifth  Avenue.  This  became  his  home  in  winter,  and  a 
charming  home  it  was,  with  its  broad  library  and  study, 
adorned  with  pictures  from  his  own  brush.  Here  the  pres- 
ent writer  was  presented  to  him  in  his  eightieth  year.  Even 
then  he  stood  erect,  with  a  dignity  and  courtesy  unaffected 
by  his  burden  of  years.  He  said  that  he  had  just  received 
pleasant  news  from  Germany :  "  Many  German  inventors 
have  devised  new  and  ingenious  telegraph  instruments,  but 
from  every  quarter  of  the  empire  they  ask  for  the  Morse." 
Morse,  as  we  have  seen,  obtained  but  one  patent  in 
Europe,  namely,  from  France,  and  this  was  burdened  with 
conditions  which  made  it  valueless.  Far  and  wide  through- 
out Europe,  1  -ever,  his  apparatus  went  into  service,  and 
details  of  practice,  worked  out  in  America  at  his  instance, 
were  adopted  in  all  the  leading  countries  of  the  Continent. 
In  view  of  these  facts,  and  in  view  of  the  comparatively 
scant  remuneration  which  he  had  enjoyed  from  his  Amer- 
ican patents,  Morse,  in  1857,  by  the  advice  of  friends  hold- 
ing high  official  stations,  issued  a  memorial  claiming  some 
indemnity  from  the  Governments  of  Europe  within  whose 
borders  his  telegraph  was  at  work.  General  Lewis  Cass, 
Secretary  of  State,  sent  copies  of  this  memorial  to  Min- 
isters of  the  United  States  in  Europe,  soliciting  their  good 
offices  on  behalf  of  the  inventor.  His  appeal  was  favorably 
received.  Count  Walewski,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  for 
France,  acted  as  secretary  of  the  international  committee 
which  took  a  testimonial, in  hand.  He  addressed  to  Morse 
this  cordial  note: 

"PARIS,  September  i,  1858. 

"  SIR  :  It  is  with  lively  satisfaction  that  I  have  the  honor 
to  announce  to  you  that  the  sum  of  four  hundred  thousand 
francs  will  be  remitted  to  you,  in  four  annuities,  in  the  name 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  171 

of  France,  of  Austria,  of  Belgium,  of  the  Netherlands,  of 
Piedmont,  of  Russia,  of  the  Holy  See,  of  Sweden,  of  Tus- 
cany, and  of  Turkey,  as  an  honorary  gratuity,  and  as  a  re- 
ward, altogether  personal,  of  your  useful  labors.  Nothing 
can  better  mark,  than  this  collective  act  of  reward,  the  sen- 
timent of  public  gratitude  which  your  invention  has  so  justly 
excited.  .  .  ." 

In  this  gratifying  mode,  as  an  act  of  justice,  Morse 
received  from  Europe  compensation  equal  to  that  accorded 
him  in  his  native  America.  The  note  from  Count  Walewski 
was  followed  by  a  word  from  Professor  Steinheil,  the  di- 
rector of  German  telegraphs.  It  was  this  distinguished  man 
who  discovered  that  the  earth  may  serve  instead  of  the  sec- 
ond wire  which,  originally,  was  deemed  indispensable  as  a 
return  line.  This  discovery,  which  at  a  stroke  cut  down 
the  cost  of  construction  by  one-half,  neve"  nought  him  a 
penny.  Professor  Steinheil  was  a  gentleman:  never  for  a 
moment  was  his  mind  warped  or  clouded  by  professional 
jealousy.  He  had  invented  an  elaborate  telegraph  instru- 
ment :  but  Morse's  was  better,  and  he  always  said  so.  This 
is  Steinheil's  note  to  Morse  : 

"  MUNICH,  October  30,  1858. 

".  .  .  What  we  have  done  for  telegraphy  stands  side  by 
side.  The  contributions  of  the  one  do  not  encroach  on  the 
contributions  of  the  other — do  not  make  the  other  super- 
fluous. You  have  contributed  the  quickest,  simplest,  and 
most  beautiful  mode  of  communication.  I  have  reduced  to 
one-half  the  conducting  wire,  and  also  made  it  surer  and 
cheaper.  Now  it  will  be  a  satisfaction  to  me  if  this  my 
contribution  toward  solving  the  great  problem  should  be 
rewarded  by  my  friends  in  Europe.  But  I  cannot  suppress 
the  wish  that,  as  I  contributed  to  procure  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  your  invention  in  Europe,  so  you  may  be  inclined  to 
procure  my  portion  of  reward  in  America.  It  would  cer- 
tainly be  a  noble  example,  seldom  seen  in  the  world's  his- 
tory, the  example  of  two  men  who  had  spent  a  great  part 
of  their  lifetime  in  solving  the  same  problem,  appearing  not 


172         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

as  rivals,  but  as  friends,  each  striving  that  the  services  of 
the  one  should  be  rewarded  in  the  land  of  the  other." 

The  example  of  Europe  in  behalf  of  Morse  was  not  fol- 
lowed by  America  with  regard  to  the  eminent  German  elec- 
trician. His  great  contribution  to  the  wealth  of  the  United 
States  never  brought  him  anything  beyond  vocal  thanks. 

When  Morse  was  well  advanced  in  the  eighth  decade  of 
his  life,  his  friends,  a  numerous  and  influential  band,  re- 
solved to  accord  him  a  public  banquet  at  Delmonico's.  This 
entertainment  took  place  on  December  29,  1868.  Chief 
Justice  Chase,  who  had  been  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in 
the  Cabinet  of  President  Lincoln,  was  chairman.  Daniel 
Huntington,  the  eminent  artist  of  New  York,  who  had  been 
a  pupil  of  Morse's,  paid  him  an  eloquent  tribute  as  an  artist 
whose  successes  at  the  easel  had  prefigured  his  triumphs  in 
telegraphy.* 

Morse  was  a  man  of  clinging  affections.  Gratitude,  once 
aroused  in  his  heart,  was  undying.  Of  Allston,  his  master 

*On  October  5,  1911,  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company,  at 
its  headquarters  in  New  York,  reported  the  following  interesting 
facts  and  figures.  They  present  a  wonderful  advance  within  a 
period  of  less  than  seventy  years  from  May  24,  1843,  when  Pro- 
fessor Morse  sent  his  famous  despatch  from  Washington  to  Bal- 
timore— 

The  longest  land  line  of  the  Company,  without  a  repeater,  stretches 
from  Ogden,  Utah,  to  Portland,  Oregon,  908  miles.  Its  longest 
ocean  cable  unites  Canso,  Nova  Scotia,  with  Land's  End,  England, 
2,563  nautical  miles  apart.  During  the  past  thirty  years  manual 
transmission  has  not  increased  its  pace.  Ordinary  operators  send 
25  words  a  minute;  the  quickest  men  reach  40  words  a  minute,  with 
an  occasional  spurt  of  52  words.  Many  operators  receive  their  mes- 
sages directly  on  a  typewriter. 

Mechanical  transmission  is  gaining  ground  steadily.  First  of  all 
the  signals  are  reduced  to  perforations  in  a  paper  strip.  This  strip 
is  rapidly  swept  between  two  metallic  springs;  at  each  perforation 
these  springs  meet,  allowing  an  electric  pulse  to  enter  the  line.  On 
the  line  connecting  Chicago  and  San  Francisco  by  the  southern 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  173 

at  the  easel,  and  in  youth  his  generous  friend,  he  ever  spoke 
with  loving  veneration.  In  token  of  this  feeling  to  the  artist 
and  the  man,  he  presented  Leslie's  portrait  of  Allston  to  the 
National  Academy  of  Design,  New  York,  of  which  he  him- 
self had  long  been  president.  He  did  honor  to  Allston's 
memory  a  second  time,  and  notably,  in  presenting  to  Yale 
College  Allston's  celebrated  painting  of  Jeremiah.  This 
picture,  which  cost  Morse  seven  thousand  dollars,  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  donation  of  ten  thousand  dollars  to  the  Theo- 
logical Department  of  Yale.  An  equal  donation  went  to 
the  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York,  to  endow 
a  lectureship  to  bear  his  father's  name,  on  "  The  Relation 
of  the  Bible  to  the  Sciences."  Long  before  this,  indeed  as 
far  back  as  1846,  Yale  College,  with  commendable  prompti- 
tude, had  conferred  upon  Morse  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Laws.  This  honor  came  from  the  hands  of  President  Day, 
who,  as  professor  of  physics,  had  undoubtedly  given  Morse 
his  first  impulse  toward  the  telegraph.  This  degree  from 

route,  2,785  miles  in  length,  a  speed  of  70  to  80  words  a  minute  is  at- 
tained by  automatic  transmission.  Similar  apparatus  is  employed 
on  ocean  cables,  with  the  result  that  on  the  best  lines  250  letters  a 
minute  are  forwarded  On  submarine  wires  two  messages  may  be 
simultaneously  despatched  without  confusion;  on  land  wires  four 
such  messages  seem  to  be  the  limit  of  feasible  practice.  Between 
New  York  and  Chicago,  New  York  and  Boston,  and  several  other 
pairs  of  cities,  the  automatic  receivers  print  their  messages  on  type- 
writers. 

The  original  wire  from  Washington  to  Baltimore  was  placed 
underground;  because  of  defective  insulation  it  failed  utterly.  To- 
day a  subterranean  line  is  being  completed  which  will  link  together 
Washington,  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston,  fora 
service  at  once  telegraphic  and  telephonic.  This  will  eliminate  all 
risk  of  a  break  in  communication  by  storms  or  snowfalls.  In  aerial 
lines  four  wires  are  often  so  disposed  that  four  telegrams  are  sent 
from  each  terminal  at  once,  while,  at  the  same  time,  three  tele- 
phonic conversations  are  in  progress. 

At  the  end  of  1910,  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  had 
30,163  operators  in  its  employ. 


174         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

his  alma  mater  was  the  most  cherished  of  the  scores  of 
distinctions  showered  upon  him  by  colleges  and  universities, 
by  learned  societies  at  home  and  abroad,  and  by  nations 
all  the  way  from  Turkey  to  Sweden.  Devotion  to  Yale 
was  always  part  and  parcel  of  Morse's  religion. 

As  he  advanced  in  years  he  suffered  the  inevitable  in- 
firmities of  old  age.  One  morning  in  the  summer  of  1869, 
as  he  was  going  upstairs,  he  fell  and  broke  a  leg.  This 
kept  him  in  bed  three  weeks:  he  endured  the  severe  pain 
and  imprisonment  with  serenity.  Thanks  to  his  unimpaired 
constitution,  shortly  after  he  was  able  to  come  downstairs, 
he  threw  away  his  crutch  and  walked  about  almost  as  erect 
as  ever. 

Other  afflictions  befell  him,  harder  to  bear.  In  the  autumn 
of  1868,  his  brother,  Richard,  the  youngest  of  the  trio,  died 
abroad.  In  1871,  Sidney,  his  only  surviving  brother,  passed 
away.  The  ties  of  affection  binding  these  three  together 
were  strong.  It  may  be  fitting  here  to  mention  an  act  in 
which  they  joined  to  do  honor  to  their  father's  memory. 
Rev.  Dr.  Morse  died,  leaving  no  estate  whatever,  and  his 
debts,  amounting  to  a  considerable  sum,  were  assumed  by 
his  sons.  At  first  Samuel  could  contribute  nothing.  When 
prosperity  came  to  him,  he  insisted  upon  paying  one-third,  so 
that  all  the  brothers  might  share  and  share  alike. 

Much  comes  to  a  man  by  remaining  on  earth,  even  when 
he  remains  long  after  the  labors  which  have  won  him 
renown.  In  his  eighty-first  year,  Morse  received  the  un- 
usual honor  of  having  his  statue  reared  in  the  city  which 
had  long  been  his  home,  and  where  he  had  accomplished  his 
great  work.  This  statue,  of  heroic  size,  was  unveiled  in 
Central  Park,  New  York,  on  June  10,  1871.  It  was  modeled 
by  Byron  M.  Pickett,  and  cast  in  bronze  by  Maurice  I. 
Power.  It  stands  close  to  the  portal  at  Seventy-second 
Street.  Another  statue,  this  time  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  was 
erected  soon  afterward,  and,  most  appropriately,  in  Printing 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE  175 

House  Square,  New  York.  Its  inauguration  was  fixed  for 
January  17,  1872.  The  committee  in  charge  requested 
Morse  to  unveil  their  statue  of  a  great  American 
who,  like  himself,  had  subjugated  electricity  with  the  hand 
of  a  master.  Morse  was  now  in  feeble  health,  sinking  in 
strength  a  little  every  day.  But  he  insisted  on  accepting  the 
invitation.  The  day  had  been  unwisely  chosen;  it  was  bit- 
terly cold,  as  might  have  been  expected  in  midwinter.  After 
Morse  had  withdrawn  the  cord  that  removed  the  covering 
from  the  bronze,  he  said :  "  Mr.  De  Groot  and  Fellow-citi- 
zens :  I  esteem  it  one  of  my  highest  honors  that  I  should  have 
been  designated  to  perform  the  office  of  unveiling  this  day 
the  fine  statue  of  our  illustrious  and  immortal  Franklin. 
When  requested  to  accept  this  duty,  I  was  confined  to  my 
bed,  but  I  could  not  refuse,  and  I  said,  '  Yes,  if  I  have  to  be 
lifted  to  the  spot/  Franklin  needs  no  eulogy  from  me.  No 
one  has  more  reason  to  venerate  his  name  than  myself.  May 
his  illustrious  example  of  devotion  to  the  interest  of  uni- 
versal humanity  be  the  seed  of  further  fruit  for  the  good  of 
the  world." 

He  went  home  to  die.  Neuralgia  seized  him,  and  all  his 
fortitude  was  demanded  to  bear  its  pain.  He  died  on  April 
2,  1872.  His  funeral  took  place  from  the  Madison  Square 
Presbyterian  Church,  on  April  5. 

So  ended  the  life  of  the  remarkable  man  who  established 
American  telegraphy.  Those  of  us  who  remember  him  as 
he  would  occasionally  stroll  through  Madison  Square,  re- 
call a  figure  quite  six  feet  in  stature,  erect  and  firm,  almost 
to  the  last.  His  large  blue  eyes  had  the  steady  look  which 
sees  men  and  things  as  they  are.  Here  was  a  gentleman  of 
the  old  school,  with  dignity  as  his  chief  characteristic.  In  a 
circle  of  friends  he  was  fond  of  fun,  with  strangers  his 
manner  was  that  of  highbred  reserve.  In  his  family  he 
was  regarded  with  veneration.  Those  who  knew  him  best 
loved  him  most. 


CHARLES   GOODYEAR 

AIR  and  water,  food  and  shelter,  were  the  first  gifts  of 
Nature  to  man.  Amid  his  lowly  kindred  he  soon  declared 
his  primacy  by  wielding  sticks  and  stones  as  weapons  and 
tools,  by  plaiting  leaves  and  grass  into  roofs,  by  rending 
hides  into  raiment.  Next  he  shaped  flints  into  rude  chisels 
and  knives,  and,  using  as  an  awl  a  thorn  plucked  from  a 
cactus,  he  bade  a  sinew  fasten  one  hide  to  another.  In  a 
golden  hour  he  caught  a  spark  struck  from  flints,  and  thus 
harnessed  flame  to  hollow  a  tree  into  a  canoe,  to  harden  clay 
into  pottery,  to  smelt  lead  and  iron  from  their  ores.  In  new 
intensities,  fire  fused  sand  into  glass,  and  alloyed  carbon 
with  iron  to  form  steel.  Meantime  arts  of  equal  dignity 
arose  without  aid  from  fire :  hides  were  tanned  into  leather, 
paper  was  unrolled  from  birchbark,  from  the  papyrus,  from 
the  fibers  of  many  other  plants.  Thus  were  gifts  of  Nature 
exalted  in  value  by  art :  the  tanner  added  new  strength  and 
durability  to  a  sheepskin;  the  steelmaker  bestowed  upon 
iron  a  heightened  elasticity.  Tanning,  steelmaking,  and 
their  sister  arts  date  back  so  far  that  their  birth  has  faded 
even  from  myth  and  legend.  From  those  remote  times  to 
the  present  day  there  has  been  but  one  worthy  addition  to 
glass  and  pottery,  leather  and  paper,  namely,  the  vulcanized 
rubber  due  to  Charles  Goodyear.  Were  it  as  cheap  as  glass 
or  steel,  it  would  be  just  as  commonly  and  usefully  em- 
ployed. 

Charles  Goodyear  was  born  in  New  Haven,  Connecticut, 
on  December  29,  1800,  of  that  sound  New  England  stock 
which  has  given  many  leaders  to  America.  His  father, 
Amasa  Goodyear,  was  descended  from  Stephen  Goodyear, 
successor  to  Governor  Eaton  as  head  of  the  company  of 

176 


[From  the  painting  by  G.  P.  A.  Healy,  Museum  of  the  Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and 

Sciences.] 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  177 

London  merchants  who,  in  1683,  founded  the  colony  of 
New  Haven.  Charles  Goodyear,  as  a  boy,  was  studious 
and  resolute,  giving  clear  promise  of  the  man.  In  youth 
he  had  some  thought  of  entering  the  Christian  ministry: 
throughout  life  his  religious  faith  was  an  unfailing  staff  in 
every  onset  and  repulse.  At  seventeen  he  went  to  Phila- 
delphia, where  he  mastered  the  .hardware  trade  in  an  ap- 
prenticeship of  four  years.  The  experience  thus  gained  he 
turned  to  good  account  at  a  later  period,  as'  we  shall  note. 
At  twenty-one  he  returned  to  New  Haven,  and  became  a 
partner  with  his  father  in  the  firm  of  Amasa  Goodyear'  & 
Son.  They  manufactured  metal  buttons  and  spoons, 
scythes  and  clocks.  Several  of  their  other  products  were 
farm  tools  of  steel,  devised  by  the  elder  Goodyear.  Of 
these  the  best  were  the  forks,  which  slowly  supplanted 
clumsy  tools  forged  from  wrought-iron  at  local  smithies. 
As  customers  grudgingly  bought  these  steel  forks,  young 
Goodyear  learned  a  lesson  he  never  forgot.  The  forks  were 
light,  springy,  and  durable ;  yet  their  very  lightness  and  fine 
finish  often  excited  suspicion.  Not  seldom  a  well-to-do 
farmer  deemed  that  he  paid  the  inventor  a  compliment  in  ac- 
cepting one  of  his  forks  as  a  present.  In  producing  other 
tools  of  like  novelty,  and  some  simple  farm  machinery,  the 
elder  Goodyear  was  constantly  at  work.  His  example  acted 
as  a  spur  to  his  son,  who,  like  himself,  was  brimming  with 
Yankee  ingenuity.  And  yet,  with  characteristic  candor, 
Charles  Goodyear  disclaimed  any  special  talent  as  a 
mechanic.  He  says: 

"  I  do  not  claim  to  have  a  mechanical  talent,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  have  an  aversion  to  bestowing  thought  upon  ma- 
chinery when  there  is  anything  complicated  about  it.  ... 
Independently  of  all  pecuniary  considerations,  I  have  taken 
great  satisfaction  in  trying  to  improve  articles  of  necessity 
or  convenience,  for  the  use  of  men.  Those  which  first  en- 
gaged my  attention  were  in  the  hardware  line,  and  such  as 


178          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

were  immediately  connected  with  my  occupation.  When- 
ever I  observed  an  article  in  common  use  in  which  there 
was  obviously  a  great  defect,  I  commonly  applied  my  mind 
to  the  subject  to  find,  if  possible,  the  best  way  of  improving 
it,  or  removing  the  defect,  always  contesting  the  common 
maxim  that,  for  the  interest  of  trade,  '  things  should  be 
made  so  that  they  will  not  last  too  long.'  " 

In  1824,  Goodyear  married  Clarissa  Beecher;  their  happy 
union  was  blessed  with  seven  children.*  No  matter  how 
dire  the  straits  into  which  Goodyear  repeatedly  fell,  his  wife 
bore  her  part  with  unrepining  cheerfulness.  \During  her 
husband's  long  battle,  she  looked  for  victory  with  his  own 
invincible  faith.  In  the  second  year  of  their  marriage, 
Goodyear  returned  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  established 
a  hardware  store,  mainly  stocked  from  his  father's  work- 
shop in  New  Haven.  At  first  this  business  thrived,  but 
Goodyear  gave  credit  too  freely,  and  in  1830  he  was  obliged 
to  suspend  payment,  his  creditors  granting  him  a  long 
period  for  the  discharge  of  their  claims.  He  refused  to 
avail  himself  of  the  bankrupt  law,  partly  because  bankruptcy 
would  divest  him  of  titles  to  unfinished  inventions.  His 
decision  was  unfortunate :  his  prestige  in  banking  circles 
was  gone,  and  his  difficulties  went  steadily  from  bad  to 


*Of  these  children  two  survive:  Miss  Clarissa  Goodyear  of  Win- 
sted,  Connecticut,  and  Professor  William  Henry  Goodyear,  Curator 
of  the  Department  of  Fine  Arts  in  the  Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts 
and  Sciences.  He  has  acquired  international  honors  as  a  student 
and  author  in  the  field  of  fine  art.  Especially  acute  and  fruitful  are 
his  studies  of  refinements  in  architectural  design. 

Nelson  Goodyear,  of  New  York,  a  grandson  of  Charles  Goodyear, 
is  the  inventor  of  a  variety  of  acetylene  and  other  gas  apparatus, 
both  for  illumination  and  for  generating  and  burning  combustible 
gas,  in  connection  with  oxygen ,  as  a  source  of  intense  heat.  He  rep- 
resents the  fourth  generation  in  a  remarkable  line  of  inventors. 
His  father,  Charles  Goodyear  II.,  greatly  improved  the  welt-sewing 
machine  that  bears  his  name, 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  179 

worse.  Under  the  cruel  laws  then  in  force,  he  was,  during 
the  next  ten  years,  again  and  again  imprisoned  for  debt. 
Happily  he  found  merciful  men  among  his  jailers,  who  al- 
lowed him  to  use  a  bench  and  tools.  More  than  once  he 
thus  earned  enough  in  prison  to  send  bread  to  his  wife 
and  children.  He  faced  all  this  hardship  without  flinching 
or  complaint.  As  to  his  feelings  in  bondage,  he  wrote: 
"  My  anticipations  of  ultimate  success  in  life  were  never 
changed,  my  hopes  were  never  for  one  moment  depressed." 
In  those  dark  days,  the  profits  from  his  ingenuity,  though 
small,  determined  Goodyear  to  set  up  as  an  inventor.  From 
boyhood  he  had  worked  with  tools ;  as  a  manufacturer  and 
a  merchant  he  had  learned  just  what  people  wanted,  and 
what  good  things  they  were  likely  to  leave  unbought.  He 
believed  with  his  father,  that  it  was  high  time  that  many 
an  old  appliance  gave  place  to  something  new  and  better. 
His  father  had  made  his  mark  by  improving  the  tools  and 
machinery  for  farms.  Why  did  not  Charles  Goodyear  stick 
to  this  goodly  field  ?  What  led  him  to  gum  elastic  as  the  ob- 
ject of  his  thought  and  toil?  This  is  his  answer: 

"  While  yet  a  schoolboy,  the  wonderful  and  mysterious 
properties  of  this  substance  attracted  my  attention,  and  made 
a  strong  impression  on  my  mind.  A  thin  scale,  peeled 
from  a  bottle  or  a  shoe,  afterward  came  under  my  notice, 
and  suggested  that  this  would  be  very  useful  as  a  fabric, 
if  it  could  be  made  uniformly  thin  and  could  be  prepared 
so  as  to  prevent  its  adhering  and  becoming  a  solid  mass,  as 
it  soon  did  from  the  warmth  and  pressure  of  my  hand." 

Gum  elastic  first  came  to  the  United  States  about  1800, 
mostly  from  Brazil,  where  the  natives  derived  it  from  the 
juice  of  the  Hevea  and  other  trees.  Even  in  its  crude 
lumps  and  flakes,  as  imported  from  Para  to  New  York,  it 
was  a  substance  to  excite  the  curiosity  of  a  brain  so  in- 
quisitive and  exploring  as  Goodyear's.  He  noticed  that, 


i8o          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

while  this  gum  was  soft  and  yielding,  it  was  tough  in  an 
extraordinary  degree;  it  would  stretch  further  than  any 
other  material  he  had  ever  handled ;  it  was  waterproof,  so  as 
to  be  made  into  overshoes  and  raincoats.  But  with  all  these 
excellent  qualities,  gum  elastic  had  glaring  faults.  The 
natives  who  gathered  the  gum  molded  it  into  galoshes  that 
lasted  for  years,  although  in  winter  they  froze  to  the  hard- 
ness of  iron,  and  in  summer  became  as  soft  as  suet.  All  the 
wares  made  in  North  America  had  the  same  limited  service- 
ability. Yet  why  should  not  Yankee  ingenuity  and  skill 
surpass  the  crude  and  faulty  manufactures  of  Indians  in 
Brazil?  Over  and  over  again  the  manufacturers  of  Con- 
necticut and  Massachusetts  believed  that  they  had  come 
upon  the  secret  of  preserving  and  curing  gum  elastic,  only 
to  land  in  one  disastrous  failure  after  another.  That  the 
last  and  worst  of  these  failures  was  impending  came  to 
Goodyear's  knowledge  in  an  unexpected  way. 

In  New  York,  one  morning,  at  the  wareroom  of  the  Rox- 
bury  Rubber  Company,  he  examined  a  life-preserver,  to 
find  that  its  mode  of  inflation  was  defective.  Some  weeks 
afterward  he  revisited  this  wareroom,  offering  for  sale  a 
new  and  improved  tube  which  he  had  devised  for  this  life- 
preserver.  At  once  the  Roxbury  agent  saw  that  there 
stood  before  him  an  inventor  of  talent.  He  disclosed  to 
Goodyear  that  rubber,  as  then  manufactured,  was  liable  to 
decompose  at  a  temperature  of  100°  Fahrenheit,  or  so.  He 
declared  that  if  Goodyear  could  prevent  this  ruinous  change, 
he  would  not  only  enrich  himself,  he  would  ward  off  bank- 
ruptcy from  factories  whose  owners  had  risked  their  all. 
Goodyear  had  supposed  that,  before  huge  fortunes  had  been 
embarked  in  this  business,  its  obstacles  had  been  wholly 
surmounted.  He  went  home  to  ponder  deeply  what  he 
had  heard.  For  weeks  he  revolved  in  his  brain  the  problem 
of  curing  or  tanning  rubber  into  an  indifference  such  as 
leather  displays  to  ordinary  cold  and  heat.  Surely,  he 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  181 

thought,  there  must  be  some  way  to  do  this.  He  came 
to  the  conviction,  from  which  he  never  budged,  that  every 
obstacle  to  successful  curing  would  yield  to  persistent  as- 
sault, and  that  he  and  nobody  else  was  the  man  to  conduct 
that  assault.  He  tells  us: 

"  I  was  blessed  with  ignorance  of  the  obstacles  I  had 
subsequently  to  encounter,  but  soon  learned  that  the  dif- 
ficulties attending  the  experimenter  in  gum  elastic  obliged 
him  to  await  the  return  of  both  warm  and  cold  weather,  at 
least  twelve  months,  and  often  much  longer,  before  he  could 
know  with  certainty  that  his  manufactures  would  not  de- 
compose. ...  I  was  encouraged  in  my  efforts  by  the  re- 
flection that  what  is  hidden  and  unknown,  and  cannot  be 
discovered  by  scientific  research,  will  most  likely  be  dis- 
covered by  accident,  if  at  all,  and  by  the  man  who  applies 
himself  most  perseveringly  to  the  subject,  and  is  most  ob- 
serving of  everything  related  thereto." 

This  bold  prophecy  was  more  than  fulfilled,  as  we  shall 
presently  see.  And  its  fulfilment  lay  in  that  very  great 
agent,  heat,  which  melted  gum  elastic  much  as  if  tallow 
from  the  shambles.  This  was  why  manufacturers  of  rub- 
ber goods  avoided  working  at  temperatures  above  100°. 
Indeed,  Macintosh,  who  produced  rubber  raincoats,  warned 
hrs  customers  against  bringing  them  near  a  fire. 

With  the  hope  before  him  of  a  goodly  reward,  Goodyear 
began  experiments  with  some  Brazilian  gum  elastic.  At 
first  he  worked  in  his  small  dwelling,  where  he  mixed  his 
gum  by  hand,  spreading  it  with  a  rolling-pin  lent  by  his 
wife.  Soon  his  admixtures  were  applied  to  emboss  cam- 
brics, for  which  there  was  at  that  time  a  fair  demand.  A 
friend,  Ralph  B.  Steele,  of  New  Haven,  now  advanced  him 
a  little  capital,  and  Goodyear  soon  covered  his  shelves  with 
hundreds  of  pairs  of  rubber  shoes,  attractive  in  style,  easy 
to  put  on  and  take  off.  But  were  they  as  good  as  they 
seemed  ?  We  shall  see.  Goodyear  all  along  had  been  both- 


182         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

ered  by  the  persistent  stickiness  of  his  gum.  He  thought 
this  due  to  the  turpentine  he  used  as  a  solvent.  If  he 
could  secure  a  supply  of  gum  elastic,  not  dissolved  in  tur- 
pentine, a  fair  test  would  condemn  or  acquit  the  accused 
solvent. 

He  rejoiced  when  he  was  able  to  buy  a  few  casks  of  gum, 
kept  liquid  by  a  little  alcohol  and  nothing  else.  Shortly 
after  the  casks  were  rolled  into  his  premises,  he  was  called 
out  by  an  errand  for  an  hour  or  two.  In  that  interval,  Jerry 
from  Ireland,  his  man-of-all-work,  resolved  to  acquaint  him- 
self with  that  liquid  gum,  so  he  applied  it  to  his  trousers  with 
no  sparing  hand.  To  his  alarm  in  a  few  minutes  his  legs 
were  cemented  together,  and  he  was  firmly  glued  to  his 
bench.  Only  when  a  pair  of  shears  had  been  diligently  plied 
around  him,  was  Jerry  once  more  a  free  man.  This  ad- 
venture was  decisive.  It  taught  Goodyear  that  the  sticki- 
ness of  gum  elastic  inhered  in  itself,  and  was  not  chargeable 
to  any  solvent  whatever. 

And  what  of  the  rubber  shoes  he  had  molded  in  hun- 
dreds of  handsome  and  convenient  pairs?  By  way  of  test 
he  left  them  alone  until  warm  weather.  Then,  a  single  hot 
day  melted  them  into  formless  and  reeking  dough.  Good- 
year had  been  so  sanguine  of  success  that  this  failure  was 
mortifying  in  the  extreme.  His  friends,  to  whom  he  was 
in  debt,  withdrew  all  further  aid.  Why  should  they  throw 
good  money  after  bad?  Goodyear  placed  his  family  in  a 
nearby  village,  where,  soon  afterward,  his  wife,  to  pay  their 
way,  had  to  sell  linen  she  had  spun  at  her  wheel.  Good- 
year betook  himself  to  New  York,  where  a  friend,  John  W. 
Sexton,  provided  him  with  a  lodging  in  Gold  Street.  A 
good-natured  druggist,  Silas  Carle,  advanced  him  the  chem- 
icals he  required.  One  of  his  first  compounds  was  a  union 
of  gum  elastic  and  magnesia;  this,  when  boiled  in  lime 
water,  underwent  a  tanning,  with  banishment  of  stickiness 
so  far  as  surfaces  went.  This  method  enabled  him  to  make 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  183 

a  few  sheets  of  rubber  of  fair  quality,  and  some  small  orna- 
mental articles.  For  these,  in  the  autumn  of  1835,  he  re- 
ceived prizes  at  the  fairs  of  the  Mechanics'  and  American 
Institutes.  But  Goodyear  soon  saw  that  this  lime-water 
process  had  but  slight  value.  Its  products  might,  at  any 
moment,  touch  vinegar  or  other  acid,  when  at  once  the 
surface  coat  of  lime  was  neutralized,  uncovering  sticky  gum 
beneath.  "  I  have  not  used  lime  enough,"  was  his  comment. 
So  he  employed  lime  in  larger  proportions,  only  to  find  the 
resulting  mixture  too  biting  for  his  hands.  He,  therefore, 
resorted  to  machinery,  with  its  tougher  fibers  of  wood  and 
iron.  In  Greenwich  Village,  now  part  of  New  York  City, 
he  hired  a  bench  in  Mr.  Pike's  mill,  where  machinery  and 
motive-power  were  available.  To  this  mill  Goodyear  often 
carried  a  gallon  jug  of  slaked  lime  from  his  room  in  Gold 
Street,  three  miles  away.  But  lime  intermixed  with  gum 
elastic  produced  a  compound  of  so  little  elasticity  and 
strength  as  to  be  worthless.  Shortly  after  this  balking 
discovery,  a  sunbeam  lighted  up  Goodyear's  work-table,  and 
none  too  soon. 

One  morning  he  ornamented  a  piece  of  gum  elastic  with 
bronze,  and  boiled  it  in  a  weak  solution  of  lime.  On  remov- 
ing the  fabric  from  its  bath,  he  saw  that  part  of  the  bronze 
had  been  washed  off.  To  detach  the  remainder  he  touched 
it  with  nitric  acid.  This  instantly  darkened  the  gum,  which 
he  impatiently  threw  aside  as  spoiled  and  useless.  But 
there  was  something  in  the  look  and  feel  of  that  shriveled 
sheet  that  clung  to  his  memory.  A  day  or  two  later  he 
picked  it  out  of  his  rubbish-heap,  and  examined  it, — with 
a  rich  reward.  Wherever  the  nitric  acid  had  touched  the 
gum,  all  stickiness  had  departed,  and  its  surface  was  virtu- 
ally tanned.  Goodyear  sagaciously  followed  up  this  golden 
hint ;  before  a  week  had  passed  he  was  producing  thin  rub- 
ber sheets,  cured  through  and  through.  From  these  he  pat- 
terned table-covers  and  aprons,  which  he  printed  in  hand- 


1 84          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

some  designs.  This  acid-gas  process,  as  he  afterward  called 
it,  he  gradually  improved  in  every  detail.  By  dipping  his 
wares  in  a  weak  solution  of  nitric  acid,  and  then  in  water 
mingled  with  a  little  chloride  of  lime,  he  avoided  the  scorch- 
ing which  had  pestered  him  in  early  experiments.  All  the 
cold  processes  for  curing  rubber,  whether  devised  by  Good- 
year or  his  successors,  date  from  his  happy  observation  of 
the  effect  produced  by  a  touch  of  nitric  acid.* 
.,^At  this  period  of  Goodyear's  experiments,  his  wife  was 
his  constant  helper.  She  it  was  who  first  built  schoolroom 
globes  from  sheet  rubber.  Had  she  been  absent,  the  scraps 
of  her  husband's  pasteboard  patterns  would  have  gone  to 
waste.  Her  deft  fingers  dovetailed  them  into  bonnets,  worn 
at  church  by  herself  and  her  daughters. 

Goodyear's  thin  fabrics  were  so  novel  and  durable  that 
they  readily  found  a  market.  This  attracted  the  interest  of 
William  Ballard,  of  New  York,  who  proffered  financial  aid 
to  the  inventor.  With  little  delay  the  firm  of  Goodyear 
&  Ballard  was  formed,  and  began  manufacturing,  first  in 
Bank  Street,  New  York,  and  later  in  Staten  Island.  Pre- 
paring for  a  large  business,  they  rented  a  wareroom  on 
Broadway.  But  the  panic  of  1836  forced  Mr.  Ballard  into 
bankruptcy,  and  the  factory  had  to  be  closed.  Again  Good- 
year's  fortunes  dropped  to  a  low  ebb.  One  afternoon,  in 
Staten  Island,  he  could  not  pay  his  fare  to  New  York ;  so 
he  pawned  his  umbrella  with  the  ferrymaster,  afterward 
famous  as  Commodore  Vanderbilt. 

*In  1846,  Alexander  Parkes,  a  chemist  of  Birmingham,  in  Eng- 
land, invented  a  vulcanization  requiring  no  heat.  He  immersed 
gum  elastic  in  a  mixture  of  100  parts  bisulphide  of  carbon  and  2|  parts 
of  chloride  of  sulphur.  After  an  immersion  of  from  i|  to  3  minutes, 
depending  upon  the  thickness  of  the  goods,  he  employed  a  drying 
stream  of  air  at  about  78°  Fahrenheit. 

A  vapor  cure,  requiring  but  moderate  temperatures,  is  sometimes 
employed  for  thin  fabrics.  The  vapor  of  heated  chloride  of  sulphur 
is  sent  into  a  container  in  which  the  goods  fully  expose  their  surfaces. 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  185 

To  keep  the  wolf  from  his  door,  he  resumed  the  making 
of  aprons  and  tablecloths,  but  the  demand  for  these  goods 
slowly  fell  to  zero.  His  scanty  tableware,  under  stress  of 
want,  dwindled  to  little  more  than  a  few  cups  which,  by 
turns,  held  weak  tea,  or  mixtures  of  gum,  not  so  weak.  His 
straits  at  last  grew  desperate.  .  One  morning  his  family 
arose  without  a  crumb  in  the  cupboard,  without  a  penny 
to  buy  food.  He  put  a  valued  keepsake  in  his  pocket,  and 
sped  toward  a  pawnshop.  On  his  way  thither  he  met  a 
creditor  from  whom  he  had  reason  to  dread  reproaches. 
Great  was  his  astonishment  to  be  asked :  "  What  can  I  do 
for  you  ?  "  When  Goodyear  was  sure  that  no  affront  was 
intended,  he  said  that  a  loan  of  fifteen  dollars  would  be 
most  useful.  In  a  moment  the  cash  was  in  his  palm.  The 
keepsake  remained  in  Goodyear's  pocket,  but  only  to  reach 
the  pawnshop  a  fortnight  later.  When,  at  last,  everything 
that  could  be  pledged  had  passed  out  of  his  hands,  Good- 
year borrowed  a  hundred  dollars  from  James  DeForest,  a 
brother-in-law.  This  loan  tided  him  over  two  or  three 
months  of  experiments  which  proceeded  all  day  and  far  into 
the  night.  Never  was  a  discoverer  more  obsessed  by  his 
aims  than  was  Goodyear.  His  thoughts  centered  in  rub- 
ber; they  were  circumferenced  by  rubber.  'When  he  saw 
garments  of  wool,  boats  of  ash,  sails  of  canvas,  it  was  only 
to  imagine  how  much  better  all  would  be  if  molded  in 
rubber. 

At  that  time,  the  largest  rubber  factory  in  America  was 
in  Roxbury,  now  part  of  Boston.  Thither  Goodyear  di- 
rected his  steps,  hoping  that  at  least  a  few  branches  of  its 
work  might  be  alive  and  stirring.  With  an  eye  to  busi- 
ness he  took  in  his  wallet  a  few  samples  of  his  best  wares. 
In  Roxbury  he  met  Harry  Willis,  who  had  been  his  fellow 
apprentice  in  Philadelphia,  and  who  treated  him  most  hos- 
pitably. And  never  did  Goodyear  need  a  friend  more  than 
now.  Roxbury  and  its  neighborhood  were  suffering  from 


i86          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

an  utter  collapse  in  the  rubber  trade.  In  this  trade,  as  re- 
cently as  1834,  there  had  been  a  boom  of  the  wildest. 
Thousands  of  speculators,  small  and  great,  had  plunged  into 
rubber  as  recklessly  as,  in  later  days,  other  victims  launched 
their  all,  and  more,  in  worthless  gold-mines  and  oil-wells. 
To-day  it  seems  incredible  that  New  Englanders,  deemed  to 
be  shrewdness  incarnate,  should  have  embarked  fortunes  in 
producing  goods  liable  to  offensive  putrefaction.  But  so 
it  was ;  and  to  the  craze  had  now  succeeded  a  panic,  and 
Goodyear  found  nobody  to  look  at  his  samples,  or  to  listen 
to  his  projects. 

There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  return  to  New  Haven, 
where,  in  the  winter  of  1837-38,  Goodyear  resumed  the 
manufacture  of  overshoes,  in  improved  qualities.  His  new 
methods  of  production  he  patented,  selling  licenses  in  con- 
nection with  his  acid-gas  process.  This  gave  him  a  decent 
income,  and  for  a  brief  season  his  skies  were  cloudless. 
Good  fortune  now  paid  him  a  second  visit,  leading  him  to  the 
very  threshold  of  vulcanization  by  the  friendly  hand  of 
Nathaniel  Hayward,  who  had  been  a  foreman  in  the  Eagle 
Rubber  Company  at  Woburn,  Massachusetts.  When  this 
Company  failed,  Hayward  was  permitted  to  use  its  factory, 
where  he  produced  a  few  rubber  goods  on  his  own  account. 
In  a  dream,  he  said,  he  had  been  bidden  to  combine  sulphur 
with  gum,  and  expose  the  compound  to  sunshine.  This 
ghostly  counsel  he  had  obeyed.  His  reward  was  rubber 
freed  from  all  stickiness,  with  a  surface  well  cured  or 
tanned.  At  Goodyear's  suggestion,  Hayward  patented  this 
process ;  when  Goodyear  bought  the  patent.  He  did  not 
then  know  that  he  was  never  to  do  a  better  stroke  of  busi- 
ness in  his  life,  for  this  purchase  was  the  first  and  indis- 
pensable step  toward  vulcanization.  That  gum  elastic  loses 
its  viscosity  in  a  solution  of  sulphur  in  turpentine  had  been 
discovered  in  1832,  by  Dr.  L.  Leudersdorff,  a  German 
chemist,  who  had  published  the  fact  in  his  "  History 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  187 

of  India  Rubber."  His  knowledge  came  to  him,  not  in 
a  vision  of  darkness,  but  in  ordinary  experiments  by  day- 
light. He  remained,  however,  wholly  ignorant  of  the 
new  values  conferred  on  sulphurized  rubber  by  high  tem- 
peratures. 

Goodyear  now  felt  that  his  feet  were  firmly  set  in  the 
right  track  at  last.  When  he  placed  thin  sheets  of  united 
rubber  and  sulphur  in  a  sunbath  for  hours  together,  he  ob- 
tained almost  as  good  a  tanning  as  afterward  from  the  heat 
of  ovens.  Then  and  always  he  marveled  that  solar  rays,  of 
quite  moderate  temperature,  were  as  effective  as  much 
greater  heats  from  fuels.  This  remarkable  fact  is  still  a 
mystery,  and  might  richly  repay  investigation.  Without  , 
pausing  to  resolve  this  puzzle,  Goodyear  took  advantage  of 
solarization,  as  he  called  it,  to  produce  new  varieties  of 
thin  rubber  wares.  On  some  of  these  he  printed  news- 
papers; a  few  others  he  shaped  into  attractive  ornaments. 
All  went  well  so  long  as  his  fabrics  were  thin  enough  to  be 
tanned  from  surface  to  surface.  When  his  wares  were 
bulky  he  found,  to  his  chagrin,  that,  beneath  their  hardened 
skin,  the  gum  was  nearly  as  sticky  as  ever. 

This  discovery  came  suddenly,  and  as  a  crushing  blow. 
The  Postmaster-General  gave  Goodyear  an  order  for  a  large 
supply  of  mail  bags.  This  order  the  inventor  noised  abroad, 
as  it  indorsed  his  rubber  in  a  most  influential  quarter.  He 
manufactured  the  bags  with  all  despatch ;  and,  although  the 
season  was  summer,  they  kept  their  shape  and  promised 
to  keep  it  permanently.  He  thought  it  well  to  hang  them 
up  for  a  prolonged  test  before  delivery  at  Washington. 
Then,  to  refresh  his  jaded  body  and  mind,  he  took  a  holiday. 
When  he  came  back,  unutterable  was  his  dismay  to  see  his 
mailbags  on  the  floor  in  malodorous  decomposition.  To 
give  them  a  leathery  hue  he  had  used  chromes,  white  lead, 
and  vermilion.  These  admixtures  he  blamed  for  the  wreck- 
age which  met  his  eye.  But  if  his  pigments  were  at  fault, 


i88          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

more  blameworthy  was  a  curing  which  sank  but  little  into 
the  body  of  his  wares.  That  season  he  had  not  only  manu- 
factured mail  bags,  but  life-preservers,  cushions,  and  other 
goods.  All  these,  as  disgusting  refuse,  were  thrown  on  his 
hands  by  their  purchasers.  Again  the  ill-starred  inventor 
sank  to  the  sorriest  plight.  His  aged  father  and  mother 
were  sharing  his  home;  they  had  to  be  deprived  of  the 
scanty  comforts  necessary  to  their  advanced  age.  Indeed, 
at  this  pinch,  it  was  not  a  question  of  comforts,  but  simply 
of  bread  and  a  roof.  He  tells  us : 

"  For  four  years  I  had  attempted  in  vain  to  improve  a 
manufacture  that  had  entailed  ruin  on  all  concerned.  It 
was  generally  agreed  that  a  man  who  could  proceed  further 
in  such  a  course  fairly  deserved  all  the  distress  brought 
.upon  himself,  and  was  justly  debarred  from  sympathy.  I 
was  not  un  frequently  reminded  that  I  could  at  any  time  im- 
prove my  circumstances  by  returning  to  the  hardware 
trade." 

In  his  heart's  core  Goodyear's  faith  was  unshaken  that 
he  would  yet  make  rubber  in  masses  as  he  had  long  made 
it  in  films.  He  was  a  dreamer,  but  he  always  took  care  to 
dream  with  his  feet  on  a  rock.  Now,  for  a  few  months,  he 
earned  an  occasional  dollar  by  making  fabrics  in  thin  rubber, 
eking  out  his  modest  expenses  by  recourse  to  pawnshops. 
Then  came  the  day  when,  through  utter  absence  of  demand 
for  his  wares,  he  was  obliged  to  cease  manufacturing.  Hay- 
ward,  who  for  some  time  had  been  his  assistant,  had  to  be 
dismissed.  Here,  indeed,  stood  a  hero,  unsustained  by  the 
excitement  and  pomp  of  a  battlefield,  continuing  a  fight  as 
faithfully  as  ever  did  an  enlisted  champion.  Day  after  day, 
cold  and  hungry  in  a  dingy  room,  he  kept  up  his  tests  of 
new  compounds,  sustained  as  firmly  as  if  he  distinctly  be- 
held what  the  next  few  months  would  unfold  to  his  view. 
He  says: 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  189 

"  I  applied  myself  with  unabated  ardor  and  diligence  to 
detect  the  cause  of  my  misfortune  and,  if  possible,  retrieve 
the  lost  reputation  of  my  invention.  As  on  former  occa- 
sions, I  had  hardly  time  enough  to  realize  the  extent  of 
my  embarrassment,  before  I  became  intently  engaged  with 
another  experiment,  my  mind  buoyant  with  new  hopes  and 
expectations;  which,  as  it  afterward  proved,  were  to  be, 
for  the  time  at  least,  more  than  realized." 

How  Goodyear,  at  the  end  of  years  of  baffled  quest,  at 
last  alighted  upon  vulcanization,  he  narrates : 

"  While  on  a  visit  to  Woburn,  I  carried  on  at  my  dwelling- 
place  some  experiments  to  ascertain  the  effect  of  heat  on 
the  compound  that  had  decomposed  in  the  mail  bags  and 
other  articles.  I  was  surprised  to  find  that  a  specimen,  be- 
ing carelessly  brought  into  contact  with  a  hot  stove,  charred 
like  leather.  I  endeavored  to  call  the  attention  of  my 
brother  and  others,  who  were  present,  and  who  were  ac- 
quainted with  the  manufacture  of  gum  elastic,  to  this  re- 
markable effect,  unlike  any  before  known,  since  gum  elastic 
always  melted  when  exposed  to  a  high  degree  of  heat. 
Nobody  but  myself  thought  the  charring  worthy  of  notice. 
My  words  reminded  my  hearers  of  other  claims  I  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  making  in  behalf  of  other  experiments.  How- 
ever, I  directly  inferred  that  if  the  charring  process  could 
be  stopped  at  the  right  point,  it  might  divest  the  compound 
of  its  stickiness  throughout,  which  would  make  it  better 
than  the  native  gum.  Upon  further  trials  with  high  tem- 
peratures I  was  convinced  that  my  inference  was  sound. 
When  I  plunged  India  rubber  into  melted  sulphur  at  great 
heats,  it  was  always  charred,  never  melted.  I  then  exposed 
a  similar  fabric  before  an  open  fire  with  the  same  result. 
What  was  of  supreme  importance  was  that  upon  the  border 
of  the  charred  fabric  there  was  a  line,  or  border,  which  had 
escaped  charring,  and  was  perfectly  cured." 

Goodyear's  daughter  has  left  this  word  regarding  her 
father's  first  unwitting  vulcanization: 

"  As  I  was  passing  in  and  out  of  the  room,  I  casually 
observed  the  little  piece  of  gum  Father  was  holding  near 


igo         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

the  fire,  and  I  noticed  that  he  was  unusually  animated  by 
some  discovery  which  he  had  made.  He  nailed  the  gum 
outside  the  door  in  the  intense  cold.  Next  morning  he 
brought  it  in,  and  held  it  up  exultingly.  It  was  perfectly 
flexible,  as  when  he  nailed  it  up.  This  was  proof  enough 
of  the  value  of  his  discovery." 

His  first  successful  treatment  of  sulphurized  rubber  took 
place  in  front  of  a  fire  in  his  bedroom.  There,  with  the  as- 
sistance of  his  family,  he  cured  a  square  yard  of  rubber- 
cloth,  thicker  than  any  fabric  he  had  hitherto  treated, 
through  and  through.  Part  of  it  went  into  a  cap  for  him- 
self, to  prove  lasting  and  pliant,  while  resistant  to  heat  and 
cold.  But  no  such  moderate  and  changeful  temperatures 
as  those  of  a  fireplace  would  meet  the  demands  now  clearly 
in  Goodyear's  vision.  He  required  a  high  and  steady  heat, 
under  strict  control.  At  first  he  had  put  up  with  the  oven 
where  his  wife  baked  her  loaves.  This  oven,  laden  with  a 
batch  of  rubber,  he  would  watch  far  into  the  night,  ob- 
serving how  the  rubber  slowly  hardened  until  six  hours  had 
passed.  Beyond  that  period,  he  found  that  only  harm  was 
wrought.  At  other  times  he  held  rubber  against  the  steam- 
ing nose  of  a  tea-kettle.  Yet  again,  he  coated  a  lump  of 
rubber  with  ashes  or  sand,  to  toast  it  for  an  hour  or  during 
a  whole  day,  altering,  on  occasion,  the  proportion  of  sulphur 
to  rubber.  Expedients  of  manufacture  which  have  long 
been  built  into  a  routine  had,  in  those  gloomy  days,  to  be 
fumbled  for  and  found  by  this  lonely  and  ill-equipped  ex- 
plorer. All  honor  to  his  sagacity  and  to  his  unswerving 
resolution ! 

For  months  after  Goodyear  had  mastered  the  art  and 
mystery  of  vulcanization,  he  was  vexed  by  rubber  peeling 
off  the  cloth  on  which  he  spread  it.  He  tried  one  textile 
fabric  after  another,  until  he  had  experimented  with  every- 
thing in  the  market.  All  in  vain;  no  cloth  had  a  lasting 
grip.  Then  he  simply  mixed  cotton  fiber  with  rubber,  and 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  191 

he  had  just  the  cloth  he  wanted.  Goodyear  deemed  this 
fabric  second  only  in  importance  to  vulcanized  rubber  it- 
self. Clad  in  a  complete  panoply  from  his  oven,  he  now 
walked  abroad,  a  marked  man.  He  tells  us  that  an  ac- 
quaintance of  his  was  once  asked :  "  How  shall  I  recognize 
Goodyear,  in  case  I  happen  to  see  him  ?  "  The  response 
was :  "  If  you  meet  a  man  who  has  on  an  India  rubber  cap, 
stock,  coat,  vest,  and  shoes,  with  an  India  rubber  purse 
without  a  cent  in  it,  that  is  he ! " 

Goodyear's  health,  never  robust,  underwent  a  strain 
but  fatal  in  these  years  of  tribulation.  Now  that  triumph 
dawned  upon  him,  he  was  a  martyr  to  dyspepsia  and  gout. 
But  neither  qualm,  nor  pain,  could  chill  his  ardor  in  attack- 
ing the  obstacles  which  remained  in  his  path.  Often  in  the 
night  he  would  arouse  his  wife  to  jot  down  directions  for 
fresh  experiments,  as  these  suggested  themselves  to  him 
after  hours  of  incessant  thought.  When  a  long  dictation 
came  to  an  end,  he  would  fall  asleep  through  sheer  ex- 
haustion. One  field  of  rich  promise  at  this  time  was  the 
use  of  steam  as  a  vulcanizer ;  within  what  limits,  and  with 
what  precautions,  it  behooved  him  to  ascertain.  He  must 
have  access  to  a  comprehensive  steam  plant;  and  just  such 
a  plant  his  friends  at  Lynn,  Baldwin  &  Haskins,  placed  at 
his  disposal.  Here  for  several  weeks  he  conducted  fruit- 
ful experiments.  Then,  well  satisfied  with  his  progress,  he 
returned  to  Woburn,  once  more  to  attack  the  chief  diffi- 
culties of  vulcanization  until,  at  last,  they  were  surmounted. 
It  is  altogether  improbable  that  one  unaided  man  fused  the 
first  glass,  or  tanned  the  first  leather,  or  spread  the  first 
sheet  of  paper.  In  all  likelihood  it  was  a  long  suces- 
sion  of  toilers  who  bestowed  each  of  these  great  boons 
upon  mankind.  It  is  the  unique  distinction  of  Goodyear 
that  he  arrived  at  his  discovery  by  himself.  He,  and  no  one 
else,  saw  the  splendid  prize  of  perfected  rubber.  He,  all 
alone,  through  the  struggles  and  defeats  of  years,  was  true 


192          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

to  that  vision.  When  Fortune,  that  exacting  mistress, 
crowned  him  with  laurel  at  last,  there  stood  beside  him 
neither  partner  nor  lieutenant. 

Are  we  to  call  it  accident  that  brought  Goodyear  first  to 
his  acid-gas  process,  and  then  to  the  supreme  discovery  of 
vulcanization  ?  On  this  point  his  convictions  were  clear : 

"...  I  was  for  many  years  seeking  to  accomplish  this 
object,  and  allowed  nothing  to  escape  my  notice  that  re- 
lated to  it.  Like  the  falling  apple  before  Newton's  gaze,  it 
was  suggestive  of  an  important  fact  to  one  whose  mind 
was  previously  prepared  to  draw  an  inference  from  any  oc- 
currence which  might  favor  the  object  of  his  research. 
While  I  admit  that  these  discoveries  of  mine  were  not  the 
result  of  scientific  chemical  investigation,  I  am  not  willing 
to  admit  that  they  were  the  result  of  what  is  commonly 
called  accident.  I  claim  them  to  be  the  result  of  the  closest 
application  and  observation." 

In  truth,  golden  accidents,  such  as  befell  Goodyear,  hap- 
pen only  to  explorers  who  deserve  them,  who  try  both  likely 
and  unlikely  experiments  with  equal  care;  who  test  new 
compounds,  often  with  no  definite  expectation  as  to  what 
properties  they  may  reveal.  They  dare  to  employ  new,  and 
possibly  dangerous,  intensities  of  heat  and  light,  of  mechan- 
ical pressure,  of  electrical  strain.  They  are  well  aware  that 
at  times  the  paths  of  Nature  return  upon  themselves,  in 
what  seems,  and  only  seems,  to  be  anomaly  and  contradic- 
tion. They  have  seen  a  boomerang  fly  forward  during 
one-half  its  sweep,  and  then  fly  backward  to  the  feet  of  its 
thrower.  They  have  observed  water  slowly  contract  dur- 
ing one  degree  after  another  of  its  cooling,  and  then  quietly 
expand  just  before  it  freezes.  Sulphur  thickens  at  a  mod- 
erate temperature,  only  to  flow  freely  at  a  higher  tem- 
perature. Rubber  united  with  sulphur  has  a  discontinuity 
even  more  remarkable:  at  first  it  softens  with  heat,  but 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  193 

heighten  that  heat,  and  the  compound  hardens,  and  takes  on 
new  and  priceless  qualities. 

When  Goodyear  had  at  last  perfected  vulcanization  in  its 
essentials,  he  found  to  his  sorrow  that  if  invention  is  dif- 
ficult, persuasion  is  still  more  difficult.  Far  and  wide  he 
offered  vulcanized  rubber,  much  more  elastic  than  its  parent 
gum,  nearly  as  durable  as  leather,  unaffected  by  heat  or 
cold.  But  whc  would  take  up  its  manufacture  and  create 
its  market?  It  was  nearly  two  years  before  he  could  con- 
vince anybody  that  his  rubber  had  value.  And  those  two 
years  renewed  his  familiarity  with  downright  want.  Dur- 
ing this  final  siege  of  the  wolf  he  was  offered  liberal  terms 
by  a  leading  firm  in  Paris,  Rattier  &  Guibal,  for  the  ex- 
clusive use  in  France  of  his  acid-gas  process.  This  process, 
he  told  them,  would  be  almost  wholly  supplanted  by  his 
new  and  better  method,  vulcanization.  This  offer  from 
Paris,  with  news  from  other  European  cities  where  the 
manufacture  of  rubber  was  thriving,  greatly  cheered  the 
anxious  inventor.  He  went  on  producing  articles  of  new 
design,  and  of  a  quality  steadily  improved.  For  the  most 
part  his  profits  were  trifling;  at  times  they  were  nothing  at 
all ;  so  that,  as  often  before,  he  came  to  the  verge  of  starva- 
tion. He  recites: 

"  During  the  winter  of  1839-40,  during  a  long  and  severe 
snowstorm,  when  even  those  who  were  blessed  with  health 
were  confined  within  doors,  I  found  that  my  family  was 
left  without  food  or  fuel.  My  feeling  was  that  the  face 
of  nature  was  a  fit  emblem  of  my  own  condition — cold  and 
cheerless.  But  the  recollection  of  a  kind  greeting  received 
some  time  previous  from  Mr.  O.  B.  Coolidge,  of  Woburn, 
suggested  a  visit  to  him,  although  he  was  almost  a  stranger. 
He  resided  at  a  distance  of  some  miles,  yet,  enfeebled  by 
illness  as  I  was,  I  resolved  to  reach  his  house  through  the 
storm.  In  making  my  way  against  the  driving  snow  I  was 
all  but  exhausted.  At  last  I  reached  the  dwelling  of  Mr. 
Coolidge,  and  stated  to  him  my  condition  and  my  hopes  of 


194          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

success  from  my  discovery.  He  received  me  cordially,  and 
not  only  supplied  me  with  a  sum  adequate  to  my  immediate 
wants,  but  also  with  facilities  for  continuing  experiments  on 
a  small  scale." 


While  awaiting,  in  misery,  the  day  when  the  public  should 
awake  to  what  vulcanization  meant  for  its  convenience  and 
gain,  Goodyear  did  not  fold  his  hands  and  bemoan  his  fate. 
He  diligently  sought  to  overcome  the  difficulties  which 
clogged  the  detailed  working  of  his  process.  From  the 
outset  of  his  labors,  he  had  been  plagued  by  the  fermenta- 
tion of  his  compounds.  He  traced  this  to  delay  between 
mixing  and  baking  his  rubber.  He  was  taught  what  the 
bread-baker  had  learned  long  before,  that  there  must  be 
despatch  betwixt  the  kneading  trough  and  the  oven.  In  an- 
other quarter  he  was  sorely  perplexed.  Often  his  goods 
showed  blisters  where,  of  course,  breaks  soon  followed. 
He  found  that  some  blisters  sprang  from  small  quantities 
of  acid  which  had  carelessly  been  allowed  to  enter  his 
turpentine.  So,  also,  if  his  white  lead,  magnesia,  or  other 
admixture,  carried  any  impurity,  however  slight,  this,  when 
heated,  would  generate  gas  and  raise  blisters.  Another 
constant  offender  was  moisture,  giving  rise  to  steam.  As  a 
final  precaution,  Goodyear  found  it  necessary  to  lift  his 
temperatures  slowly  and  evenly,  taking  pains  never  to  carry 
them  unduly  high.  While  he  was  thus  patiently  banishing 
faults  from  his  process,  he  explained  its  great  merits  to  list- 
less ears  and  averted  eyes.  Whatever  faith  he  had  once  in- 
spired in  his  public  seemed  to  have  died  beyond  hope  of 
resurrection.  But  neither  hunger  at  home,  nor  indifference 
abroad,  could  swerve  him  from  his  purpose  or  chill  his  en- 
thusiasm. He  tells  us: 

"  I  felt  in  duty  bound  to  beg  in  earnest,  if  need  be,  sooner 
than  that  the  discovery  should  be  lost  to  the  world  and  to 
myself.  .  .  .  My  inability  to  convince  others  of  the  truth  of 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  195 

my  assertions,  or  to  bring  them  to  comprehend  the  im- 
portance of  the  subject,  gave  me  intense  anxiety  as  to  the 
results,  and  produced  a  state  of  mind  such  as  could  have 
been  ill  endured  but  for  the  excitement  caused  by  efforts 
to  surmount  .the  obstacles  I  met  with.  How  I  subsisted  at 
this  period,  charity  alone  can  tell,  for  it  is  as  well  to  call 
things  by  their  right  names,  and  it  is  little  else  than  charity 
when  the  lender  looks  upon  what  he  parts  with  as  a  gift. 
The  pawning  or  selling  some  relic  of  better  days,  or  some 
article  of  necessity,  was  a  frequent  expedient.  My  library 
had  long  since  disappeared,  but  shortly  after  the  discovery 
of  vulcanization  I  collected  and  sold  at  auction  the  school- 
books  of  my  children,  which  brought  me  the  trifling  sum 
of  five  dollars;  small  as  the  amount  was,  it  enabled  me  to 
proceed.  At  this  step  I  did  not  hesitate.  The  occasion, 
and  the  certainty  of  success,  warranted  the  measure  which, 
in  other  circumstances,  would  have  been  sacrilege.  I  had 
now  grounds  of  assurance  which  had  never  existed  with 
regard  to  previous  improvements.  My  discovery  (of  vul- 
canization) was  made  in  winter,  and  its  specimens  did  not 
stiffen  by  cold.  Summer  returned  and  they  were  not  soft- 
ened by  heat:  there  could  be  no  danger  on  this  score,  as 
they  were  made  at  a  temperature  of  270°.  The  next  thing 
to  be  done  was  to  manufacture  specimens  of  sufficient  size 
to  satisfy  others  of  the  merit  of  the  invention  by  a  trial  of 
the  goods.  At  first  I  was  unaware  of  the  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  operating  on  a  large  scale.  All  my  previous 
specimens  were  made  from  thin  fabrics,  which  could  be 
heated  before  an  open  fire.  When  a  specimen  of  consid- 
erable dimensions  was  heated,  it  seemed  impossible  to  avoid 
blistering,  and  this  inflicted  great  loss  before  it  was  at  last 
overcome. 

"  In  the  spring  of  1839  I  had  manufactured  some  tol- 
erably perfect  specimens,  heating  them  before  an  open  fire 
with  brushwood  which  the  kindness  of  my  neighbors  al- 
lowed me  to  gather  in  the  fields,  as  I  was  unable  that  sum- 
mer to  supply  myself  with  more  substantial  fuel.  When 
these  specimens  were  exhibited,  some  of  my  fellow  towns- 
men were  induced  to  assist  me  in  building  a  brick  oven, 
about  six  feet  square,  in  which  some  comparatively  large 
goods  were  to  be  baked.  But  before  vulcanization  could 
be  attempted,  the  gum  fermented,  as  the  weather  was  warm, 


196          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

and  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  be  content  with  a  few 
specimens  which  had  been  nianufactured  before  an  open 
fire  in  my  own  dwelling.  These  I  wrapped  up  with  intent 
to  show  them  in  New  York.  A  former  employee  of  mine, 
at  that  time  in  Boston,  promised  that  if  I  would  call  on 
him  in  that  city  he  would  lend  me  fifty  dollars*.  When  I 
arrived  in  Boston,  he  disappointed  me.  ...  I  strayed  into 
East  Cambridge,  and  stayed  at  the  house  of  a  friend  who 
made  me  comfortable  for  the  night.  Early  next  morning  I 
walked  home,  a  distance  of  ten  miles,  to  learn  on  the 
threshold  that  my  youngest  boy,  two  years  of  age,  who 
was  in  perfect  health  when  I  left  home,  was  then  dying. 
I  thanked  God  for  being  turned  back  to  the  rescue  of  my 
family,  for  a  dealer  had  refused  to  keep  his  promise  to  pro- 
vide them  with  subsistence. 

"  I  then  wrote  a  note  to  a  sincere  friend  of  mine  in 
Boston,  representing  the  situation  of  my  family.  I  was 
confident  that  he  would  help  me,  and  he  did.  Out  of  re- 
gard for  my  wife  and  children  he  sent  me  seven  dollars, 
with  a  severe  reprimand  for  not  turning  my  attention  to 
some  occupation  that  would  support  my  household.  A 
stranger  to  me,  who  happened  to  be  in  my  friend's  office 
when  he  received  my  letter,  sent  me  a  barrel  of  flour, 
which  was  a  source  of  heartfelt  gratitude.  I  next  ad- 
dressed myself  to  a  brother-in-law,  Mr.  William  DeForest, 
from  whom  I  obtained  fifty  dollars.  This  enabled  me  to 
go  to  New  York,  and  lay  my  project  before  Mr.  William 
Rider,  who  agreed  to  furnish  capital  for  manufacture  on 
joint  account.  To  the  firmness  and  perseverance  of  this 
friend,  and  to  the  skill  and  assiduity  of  his  brother,  Mr. 
Emory  Rider,  even  more  than  to  their  pecuniary  aid,  am  I 
indebted  for  practical  success.  This  success  had  barely 
time  to  receive  fair  public  demonstration  when  Mr.  Will- 
iam Rider  failed,  leaving  me  once  more  without  resources. 

"  In  the  fall  of  1841,"  continues  Goodyear,  "before  Mr. 
Rider's  failure,  I  commenced  operations  at  Springfield, 
Massachusetts,  having  a  short  time  before  manufactured 
some  rubber  compound  in  sheets,  uniformly  heated.  They 
were  passed  through  a  heated  cast-iron  trough.  At  this 
time  I  invented  the  shirred  or  corrugated  goods  which  after- 
ward became  famous,  both  on  account  of  their  intrinsic 
merit,  and  through  the  many  law.suits  to  which  they  gave 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  197 

rise.  Some  elegant  ribbons  which  I  shirred,  attracted  the 
attention  of  Mr.  William  DeForest,  who  brought  them  to 
public  notice  and  favor.  .  .  .  He  furnished  the  capital  for 
their  manufacture,  so  that  I  was  able  to  proceed  with  my 
improvements  in  the  vulcanizing  process."  * 

One  morning,  while  Goodyear  was  baking  a  batch  of  rub- 
ber, a  bailiff  called  to  demand  the  immediate  payment  of  a 
considerable  debt.  In  default  of  compliance,  Goodyear  was 
escorted  to  jail.  Often  before  he  had  been  led  to  prison, 
but  now,  with  commercial  success  almost  within  his  grasp, 
his  resentment  was  keen.  His  long  maintained  opposition 
to  bankruptcy  at  last  gave  way:  he  accepted  its  relief, 
determined  that  his  merciless  creditors  should  badger  him 
no  more.  In  a  few  months  the  tide  of  his  fortunes  turned, 
and  he  was  receiving  a  goodly  revenue  from  his  licenses. 
At  once  he  paid  his  debts  to  the  last  penny,  disbursing  in 
all  $35,000.  For  a  brief  season  he  now  entered  a  quiet 
sea  and  enjoyed  fair  weather.  As  he  recalled  the  storms 
and  stresses  now  receding  into  the  past,  he  was  philosopher 
enough  to  say : 

"  Although  sometimes  disheartened  by  the  apparent  loss 
of  time  from  hindrances,  I  have,  on  the  whole,  good  reason 
to  be  reconciled  to  these  temporary  delays,  being  well  aware 
that  the  law  of  necessity,  under  one  form  or  other,  is  the 
only  one  under  which  invention  will  thrive  or  accomplish 
much.  Millions  might  have  been  spent  without  -effecting 
anything  in  comparison  with  what  has  been  done.  Money 
is  indispensable  for  the  perfecting  of  improvements,  but  it 
is  trial  and  necessity  chiefly  that  are  effectual  in  bringing 
hidden  things  to  light.  In  other  words,  however  indispen- 
sable money  may  be  to  carry  out  an  enterprise  or  perfect  the 

*  Shirring  deserves  a  word  of  description.  A  parallel  series  of  thin 
rubber  cords,  while  stretched,  are  interwoven  in  a  warp  of  cotton  or 
silk.  As  the  fabric  leaves  its  loom ,  the  rubber  is  allowed  to  contract. 
In  so  doing  it  produces  the  puckering  effect  called  ilhirring. 


198      THE  WORLD'S  LEADING  INVENTORS 

improvements  of  an  inventor,  it  will  avail  but  little  in  bring- 
ing to  light  that  which  is  unknown,  especially  where  the  sub- 
ject cannot  be  approached  by  any  known  laws  of  science." 

As  the  qualities  of  vulcanized  rubber  unfolded  themselves 
under  the  eager  tests  of  Goodyear,  his  rosiest  dreams  were 
far  outsped.  He  says  : 

"  I  did  not  expect  materially  to  improve  upon  the  good 
qualities  of  the  original  gum.  My  object  in  experiment  was 
limited  to  restoring  gum  to  its  original  state,  and  even  that 
I  almost  despaired  of.  My  success  in  imparting  to  gum 
elastic  new  and  valuable  properties,  and  at  the  same  time 
retaining  all  the  useful  qualities  it  had  at  first,  has  not 
ceased  to  surprise  mankind  wherever  it  has  become  known. 
This  substance,  aside  from  the  difficulty  of  treating  it 
chemically,  was  in  its  native  state  as  wonderful  and  mys- 
terious as  any  in  nature,  and  is  rendered  yet  more  won- 
derful by  the  change  wrought  in  vulcanization.  This 
change  may  be  compared  to  that  wrought  in  a  perishable 
skin  or  hide  by  tanning,  which  converts  it  into  a  beautiful 
kid  or  substantial  leather;  or,  to  that  wrought  when  iron 
is  baked  with  carbon,  and  issues  as  steel.  This  comparison 
with  steel  holds  good,  not  only  as  to  result,  but  also  as  to 
method,  except  that,  instead  of  carbon,  sulphur  is  employed. 
In  both  cases  a  high  temperature  is  required.  .  .  .  From  the 
vulcanizing  oven  is  removed  an  article  fundamentally 
changed  in  its  properties  as  contrasted  with  its  ingredients. 
The  most  powerful  solvents  of  gum  elastic  affect  it  but 
slightly,  or  not  at  all.  Gum  elastic  melts  at  a  comparatively 
moderate  heat,  and  cracks  with  the  ordinary  cold  of  a  win- 
ter day.  Vulcanized  rubber  is  indifferent  to  extremes  of 
both  heat  and  cold.  My  process  works  no  mere  improve- 
ment of  a  substance,  but,  in  fact,  produces  a  material 
wholly  new.  The  durability  imparted  to  gum  elastic  by 
vulcanization  not  only  improves  it  for  its  own  peculiar  and 
legitimate  uses,  but  also  renders  it  available  for  a  variety 
of  new  purposes  never  before  imagined.  It  may  appear  ab- 
surd to  compare  the  lasting  quality  of  rubber  with  that  of 
wood  and  metal,  yet  because  rubber  resists  corrosion  and 
decay,  it  is  far  preferable  to  oak  or  iron,  as  experience 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  199 

proves.  Nitric  acid  quickly  dissolves  iron,  copper,  and 
brass,  and  is  without  effect  on  rubber.  Without  injury  a 
rubber  vessel  holds  potash ;  and  potash  promptly  destroys 
leather  and  wood.  Many  other  substances  are  hurt  or 
ruined  by  water;  rubber  is  waterproof.  So  is  its  parent, 
gum  elastic,  a  fact  turned  to  account  long  before  vulcani- 
zation." *  ^ 

In  1848,  Goodyear,  with  his  unfailing  skill,  began  making 
hollow  balls  and  similar  goods.  Against  a  containing  mold, 
he  forced  a  layer  of  rubber  by  air  slightly  compressed.  Of 

*Gum  elastic  is  not  the  only  substance  which  is  greatly  exalted  in 
value  by  simple  treatment.  A  parallel  discovery  to  vulcanization 
was  that  of  John  Mercer  in  1850.  This  English  chemist  and  dyer 
found  that  cotton  fabrics  bathed  in  a  solution  of  sulphuric  acid,  or 
caustic  soda,  were  almost  doubled  in  strength.  He  proved,  also, 
that  paper  and  linen  are  improved  in  the  same  way  by  like  immer- 
sion. His  method,  familiar  as  mercerization,  to-day  produces  many 
cotton  textiles  which  resemble  silk,  and  also  the  papers,  like  parch- 
ment, used  to  cover  jars  of  preserved  fruit,  and  to  wrap  the  costlier 
kinds  of  crackers  and  sweets. 

Mercer's  original  discovery,  like  Goodyear's,  was  quite  uninten- 
tional. He  thought  that  an  alkaline  solution  passed  through  a  thick 
cotton  filter  would  be  weakened.  To  test  this  supposition  he  made 
a  filter  from  six  folds  of  fine,  strong  bleached  cotton  fabric  pressed 
thrice  through  a  calender  to  make  it  compact.  On  this  filter  he 
poured  a  caustic  soda  solution  of  60°  on  the  Twaddell  scale.  The 
filtration  was  very  slow,  and  it  fulfilled  Mercer's  expectation:  the 
solution  as  it  lef*t  the  cotton  showed  a  strength  of  but  53°  on  the 
Twaddell  scale.  And  now  John  Mercer,  as  an  observer,  came  for- 
ward as  of  kindred  to  Charles  Goodyear.  He  noticed  that  the  cotton 
filter  had  undergone  remarkable  changes;  it  had  become  semi-trans- 
parent, and  had  gained  thickness  at  the  expense  of  length  and 
breadth.  Most  important  of  all,  a  weight  of  22  pounds  was  now 
needed  to  break  off  a  piece  of  mercerized  cloth,  as  compared  with 
the  13  pounds  which  had  sufficed  before  treatment.  In  dyeing  his 
new  fabrics,  Mercer  found  that  their  receptivity  of  color  had  been 
greatly  increased.  Strange  to  say,  he  found  that  heat  checked  the 
mercerizing  process;  at  212°  Fahrenheit,  it  wholly  ceased.  This  in 
contrast  to  the  strength  added  to  rubber  at  temperatures  gradually 
heightened  to  270°. 


200          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

equal  value  were  the  thin  veneers  he  now  vulcanized  be- 
tween hot  plates.  But  it  was  in  compounding,  not  in  de- 
tails of  manipulation,  that  he  took  his  next  great  stride. 
His  brother  Nelson  discovered  that  to  increase  the  percent- 
age of  sulphur  added  hardness  to  a  compound.  Charles 
Goodyear,  following  up  this  discovery,  soon  created  a  di- 
versity of  products  quite  as  useful  as  soft  rubber,  and  un- 
like soft  rubber  in  not  being  liable  to  slow  oxidation,  with 
its  eventual  brittleness  and  decay.  One  brand  of  his  hard 
rubber  replaced  bone  and  whalebone ;  another  kind  super- 
seded ivory  and  horn.  Goodyear  shrewdly  pointed  out  that, 
in  most  cases,  these  new  rubbers  could  be  used  instead  of 
tusks  and  whale  fibers,  steadily  growing  scarcer  and  dearer. 
The  specially  tough  varieties  of  hard  rubber  known  as 
ebonite  and  vulcanite,  have  created  an  important  field  for 
themselves.  They  may  be  turned  in  a  lathe,  or  carved 
by  steel  tools,  as  if  ebony  or  boxwood,  for  cabinet-work. 
As  they  are  impervious  to  water,  uncorroded  by  acids,  and 
non-conductors  of  electricity,  they  afford  electrical  insula- 
tors of  unapproached  quality,  and  form  indispensable  parts 
of  the  best  telegraphic  and  telephonic  instruments.  These 
hard  rubbers,  almost  metallic  in  appearance,  remind  us  that 
at  first  Goodyear  called  his  wares  "  metallic  gum  elastic/' 
supposing  their  sulphur  to  be  as  metallic  as  their  lead.  Cop- 
per has  often  been  used  by  portrait  painters  instead  of  can- 
vas or  wood,  and  Goodyear  determined  that  hard  rubber 
should  be  tested  for  a  like  purpose.  Accordingly  he  had 
a  series  of  family  portraits  executed  on  hard  rubber,  and 
with  gratifying  results,  as  this  material  is  unaffected  by 
dampness  or  wide  fluctuations  of  temperature,  and  is  liable 
neither  to  crack,  warp,  nor  decay.  One  of  these  pictures,  a 
portrait  of  himself,  is  reproduced  for  this  chapter.  It  was 
executed  in  Paris,  in  1855,  by  George  P.  A.  Healy.  Rubber, 
hard  or  soft,  is  prepared  by  vulcanization — a  word  not 
coined  by  Goodyear.  James  Brockedon,  a  partner  of  Mac- 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  201 

intosh,  in  the  manufacture  of  raincoats,  with  the  Vulcan  of 
mythology  in  mind,  callecl  the  Goodyear  process  "  vulcani- 
zation." This  term  has  taken  firm  root  in  the  English 
language. 

To  understand  how  much  art  and  science  owe  to  Good- 
year, let  us  place  side  by  side  a  piece  of  vulcanized  rubber, 
and  a  bit  of  gum  elastic,  such  as  his  process  begins  with. 
Except  for  its  dinginess,  the  gum  reminds  us  of  wheaten 
dough.  Both  gum  and  dough  are  elastic  at  common  tem- 
peratures; and  both  become  brittle  in  wintry  air.  Two 
joined  lumps  of  dough  adhere  so  firmly  that  they  cannot  be 
separated;  just  so  with  gum.  As  new  and  golden  qualities 
appear  in  a  baked  loaf,  unpromised  in  the  parent  paste, 
so  gum,  properly  compounded  and  heated,  blossoms  into  a 
new  wealth  of  properties  not  foretold  in  the  crude  juice 
of  a  rubber  plant.  Vulcanized  rubber  is  much  more  elastic 
than  gum.  When  free  from  adulteration  it  is  much  tougher, 
so  that  it  forms  durable  gloves  and  shoes,  belts  or  tires. 
Because  born  at  a  temperature  of  270°  or  so,  it  can  bear  all 
heats  not  exceeding  these  extremes.  Happily,  it  is  just  as 
indifferent  to  cold ;  gum,  in  touching  ice,  loses  its  elasticity ; 
when  vulcanized,  it  is  as  flexible  as  ever.  To  bring  rubber 
to  brittleness  demands  the  cold  of  liquid  air,  312°  below 
the  zero  of  Fahrenheit.  Because  the  stickiness  of  gum  has 
vanished  in  the  oven,  it  may  be  kept  as  clean  as  glass.  Be- 
fore it  is  heated,  a  rubber  compound  is  perfectly  plastic, 
so  that  it  may  be  molded  and  modeled  as  if  wax.  This 
makes  the  manufacture  of  its  shoes  and  garments  as  simple 
as  the  pasting  together  of  their  paper  patterns.  To  round 
out  its  circle  of  adaptability,  rubber  lends  itself  to  every  art 
of  the  printer.  It  takes  perfect  impressions  from  steel  and 
copper  plates,  from  type  and  stone;  and,  unlike  paper,  it 
asks  for  no  preliminary  dampening.  It  is  easily  bronzed, 
gilded,  or  japanned.  It  readily  combines  with  pigments,  es- 
pecially with  lead  oxides,  which  shorten  the  time  needed  for 


202          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

baking.  Last  of  all,  as  Goodyear  remarked,  it  is  a  capital 
electrical  insulator.  Since  his  time,  electricity  has  expanded 
its  empire  a  thousandfold,  so  that  rubber  to-day  covers 
millions  of  wires  bringing  currents  into  offices,  factories, 
and  homes,  and  helps  to  build,  in  even  greater  number, 
dynamos  and  motors,  telephones  and  sounders,  in  designs 
all  but  faultless,  of  efficiencies  nearly  perfect. 

Of  late  years,  the  manufacture  of  rubber  has  become,  for 
the  most  part,  highly  specialized.  A  few  large  concerns 
produce  a  large  variety  of  wares  which  may  demand  as  many 
as  four  hundred  formulas  in  their  preparation.  The  period 
required  for  heating  each  article  is  determined,  and  the  right 
temperature  is  maintained  with  precision.  Steam,  because 
easily  regulated,  is  employed  to  heat  the  ovens:  its  pres- 
sure may  reach  600  pounds  to  the  square  inch.  Rubber, 
when  prepared  and  vulcanized  with  the  utmost  care,  may 
retain  its  original  excellence  for  ten  years. 

To  produce  artificial  rubber  has  long  been  the  aim  of  lead- 
ing chemists.  In  1892  Professor  William  Tilden  derived 
isoprene,  a  colorless  liquid  resembling  benzine,  from  tur- 
pentine. A  few  weeks  afterward  he  noticed  that  a  bottle 
of  isoprene  had  spontaneously  formed  several  lumps  of 
rubber.  Isoprene  and  rubber  are  alike  in  the  number  and 
variety  of  their  atoms ;  they  differ  solely  in  the  architecture 
which  unites  these  atoms  as  molecules.  Professor  Tilden 
found  that  his  artificial  rubber,  like  the  natural  product, 
consisted  of  two  substances,  one  of  which  was  more  soluble 
in  benzine  or  carbon  bisulphide  than  the  other.  Yet  more : 
this  artificial  product  entered  into  combination  with  sulphur, 
forming  a  tough,  elastic  compound.  As  striking  was  a  dis- 
covery by  Dr.  F.  E.  Matthews  who,  in  July,  1910,  sealed  up 
isoprene  and  sodium  in  a  tube.  In  the  course  of  the  next 
month  he  observed  that  the  liquid  had  become  viscid,  and 
contained  a  little  rubber  of  prime  quality.  Sodium  thus 
enters  upon  a  new  career  as  an  important  means  of  trans- 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  203 

formation.  Other  modes  of  converting  isoprene  into  rub- 
ber have  been  discovered  by  Dr.  Fritz  Hofmann  and  Pro- 
fessor Karl  Harries ;  and  researchers  of  distinction  are 
now  endeavoring  to  cheapen  isoprene  as  a  basis  of  manu- 
facture. Tires  for  motor-cars  molded  from  artificial  rub- 
ber have  worn  as  well  as  if  Para  rubber:  a  test  so  se- 
vere is  putting  planters  on  their  mettle.  Their  hope  is  that, 
by  improved  and  enlarged  cultivation,  they  may  face  their 
chemical  rivals  as  successfully  as  have  the  planters  of 
camphor  trees. 

The  elasticity  which  so  strongly  characterizes  rubber  is 
shared,  in  minor  degrees,  by  many  other  substances,  a  few  of 
them  easily  produced  by  the  chemist.  A  white  substitute  for 
rubber  is  obtained  by  stirring  sulphur  chloride  into  linseed, 
or  other  fatty  oil,  mixed  with  petroleum  spirit.  After  a  few 
minutes'  thorough  stirring,  the  oil  thickens,  and  becomes  a 
somewhat  elastic  mass.  A  similar  substance,  dark  in  color, 
is  derived  from  a  vegetable  oil  heated  to  about  380°  Fahren- 
heit, when  flowers  of  sulphur  are  added.  As  the  mixture 
thickens,  it  develops  elasticity.  But  every  substitute  for 
rubber  is  extensible  in  only  a  comparatively-  slight  degree. 
In  this  chief  quality,  rubber  and  its  next  of  kin  stand  far 
apart,  reminding  us  of  the  immense  disparity  in  magnetism 
between  iron  and  its  nearest  relation  in  the  magnetic  fam- 
ily, nickel. 

Of  late  years,  the  art  of  blending  rubber  with  cheaper 
substances  has  been  highly  developed.  Here  as  in  every 
other  field  of  this  manufacture,  the  pioneer  was  Goodyear 
himself.  He  mixed  rubber  with  many  oils,  with  carbon 
from  coal  tar,  with  earths,  metallic  oxides,  metals,  and  ores 
finely  pulverized.  He  found  that  a  little  lampblack  in  a 
compound  conferred  resistance  to  wind  and  weather.  To 
produce  articles  specially  light,  he  strewed  sawdust  and 
powdered  cork  into  his  kettles.  Let  him  tell  how  he  mixed 
and  treated  his  compounds : 


204          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

"  Sulphur  is  sometimes  mixed  with  the  gum  in  the  process 
of  crushing  or  grinding,  in  the  proportion  of  half  an  ounce 
of  sulphur  to  a  pound  of  gum.  At  other  times  it  is  dusted 
as  flour  upon  the  goods  before  they  are  placed  in  the 
heater;  this  is  commonly  done  when  the  mixture  contains 
white  lead,  or  when  the  coat  of  gum  is  thin  and  "the  goods 
light.  .  .  .  Another  mode  is  to  generate  sulphurous  gas  in 
the  heater  containing  the  goods.,.  .  .  When  fabrics  thinly 
coated  with  rubber  are  taken  from  the  spreading  machine, 
they  are  as  adhesive  as  the  native  gum,  and  great  care  and 
skill  are  required  to  prevent  their  surfaces  adhering  to- 
gether. As  a  precaution,  the  sheets  are  rolled  up  in  cloth, 
or  dusted  with  flour.  The  articles  to  be  manufactured  are 
first  cut  out  from  a  sheet,  their  seams  are  washed  clean 
from  flour,  and  the  cleansed  parts  are  brought  into  contact 
and  pressed  either  by  the  fingers  or  a  small  band  roller, 
so  as  to  unite  them  firmly.  Then  the  article  is  ready  to  be 
vulcanized.  Some  articles,  such  as  shirred  goods,  air  pil- 
lows, and  the  like,  are  cemented.  Other  articles,  shaped 
without  cloths,  require  to  be  put  on  forms  or  lasts,  or  into 
molds  or  must  be  otherwise  supported.  This  prevents 
change  of  shape,  for  the  first  effect  of  heat  is  to  soften  the 
rubber  compound;  only  afterward  does  hardening  take 
place.  .  .  .  The  ovens  are  heated  either  by  steam  or  hot 
air.  Steam  is  not  used  in  the  cases  where  it  causes  dis- 
coloration. For  car  and  other  springs,  drapery,  stayed  com- 
pounds, and  much  else,  steam  is  preferred.  Vulcanization 
usually  requires  four  to  six  hours,  during  which  the  tem- 
perature is  gradually  raised  from  about  250°  to  270°  Fahr- 
enheit. Variations  in  temperature  and  in  time  of  exposure 
follow  upon  diversity  in  the  thickness  of  goods,  and  also 
turn  upon  the  kind  of  compound  employed." 


While  Goodyear  was  applying  his  rubber  to  art  and  in- 
dustry, in  fields  for  the  most  part  profitable,  he  was  not  to 
be  lured  into  manufacturing  as  a  vocation.  He  maintained 
his  family  in  comfort,  and  then  devoted  the  remainder  of 
his  income  to  experiment.  His  notebook,  a  priceless  heir- 
loom to  his  children,  shows  how  fruitful  and  sweeping  were 
his  designs.  His  sketches,  drawn  with  skill  and  spirit, 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  205 

are  certainly  divergent  enough.  Here  are  anchor-buoys  and 
sails,  hammocks  and  umbrellas,  overshoes  for  horses  to 
wear  on  icy  pavements,  tarpaulins  and  tents,  printers'  rolls 
and  engine  packing,  self-inflating  beds  and  baptismal  pants, 
floor-mats  and  baby- jumpers.  He  offers  us  a  hat  with  a 
receptacle  for  papers  in  its  crown,  secured  by  a  rubber  cord. 
To  a  traveler  on  shipboard  he  presents  a  waistcoat,  easily 
distended  with  air  in  case  of  shipwreck. 

Goodyear  strangely  overlooked  an  important  application 
of  rubber,  to  the  tires  of  vehicles,  as  invented  and  patented 
in  1845,  by  Robert  William  Thomson,  an  Englishman,  who 
took  pains  to  exhibit  his  wheels  in  America  as  well  as  at 
home.  To-day  a  leading  branch  of  the  rubber  industry  fur- 
nishes tires,  solid  or  pneumatic,  to  wagons  and  carriages,  to 
bicycles  and  motor-cars.  Thomson's  tires  came  out  just 
forty  years  too  soon  for  acceptance.  As  devised  in  1845, 
they  are  essentially  the  tires  rolling  at  this  hour  through  the 
Main  Streets  and  Broadways  of  America.  Thomson,  to 
give  him  the  credit  long  unduly  withheld  from  him,  was 
the  worthiest  of  all  the  successors  of  that  wonderful  man 
who  first  made  a  wheel,  for  Thomson  gave  the  wheel  a  new 
efficiency  by  bidding  it  tread  upon  air.  His  tire  was  a  hol- 
low belt  of  India  rubber,  inflated  with  air  by  a  condenser 
from  which  the  pump  of  to-day  is  lineally  descended.  His 
belt  was  formed  of  several  thicknesses  of  rubber,  soaked  and 
cemented  in  dissolved  rubber,  with  careful  vulcanization 
of  the  tube  as  a  whole.  What  attracted  most  attention  in  his 
tires  was  their  width  of  five  inches.  Thomson  had  skill  as 
well  as  ingenuity;  from  the  first  his  tires  proved  sound 
and  durable.  One  set  of  them  ran  twelve  hundred  miles 
without  distress.  But  these  "  aerial  wheels "  excited 
only  the  Oh's  and  Ah's  of  empty  wonder;  they  were 
regarded  as  mere  freaks  of  invention,  and  then  quite 
forgotten. 

About  1868,  tires  of  solid  rubber  began  to  encircle  the 


206          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

wheels  of  heavy  traction  engines  in  England.  Soon  after- 
ward they  appeared  on  the  wheels  of  chairs  for  invalids,  and 
trucks  for  baggage  and  freight.  When  velocipedes  came  in, 
their  vogue  was  stimulated  by  the  use  of  rubber  tires ;  thence 
they  passed  to  the  supplanters  of  velocipedes,  bicycles  and 
tricycles.  A  destiny  of  renown  attended  a  tricycle  owned 
by  a  lad  of  Belfast,  who,  wishing  to  outrun  his  comrades, 
appealed  for  aid  to  his  father,  John  Boyd  Dunlop,  a  vet- 
erinary surgeon.  Mr.  Dunlop  came  to  his  son's  assistance 
most  memorably.  He  took  three  pieces  of  stout  rubber 
tubing,  welded  each  into  a  circle,  inflated  this  circle  with 
air  from  a  pump  to  form  a  tire  duly  fastened  with  tape  to  a 
wheel  of  the  tricycle.  Forthwith  that  machine  outstripped 
every  rival  on  the  ground.  Dunlop  patented  his  invention, 
only  to  find  that  he  had  been  anticipated  forty-five  years 
before  by  Thomson.  But  Dunlop  saw  that,  while  he  was 
in  the  nick  of  time,  Thomson  had  been  nearly  half  a  cen- 
tury too  early.  Dunlop  and  his  friends  at  once  formed  a 
joint-stock  company,  and  possessed  themselves  of  patents 
for  clinchers  and  other  indispensable  auxiliaries.  Then  they 
proceeded  to  make  and  market  their  tires  with  so  much  skill 
and  address  that  soon  they  were  masters  of  a  huge  busi- 
ness, with  branches  throughout  the  world. 

Since  1898,  motor-cars  have  been  perfected,  and  are  now 
adapted  to  touring,  to  the  transportation  of  passengers  and 
freight,  in  scores  of  excellent  models.  Despite  recurrent 
competition  from  leather,  wood,  or  steel,  rubber  for  tires 
holds  the  field.  In  many  cases  it  is  armored  with  leather, 
and  usually  this  leather  bears  studs  of  steel.  The  prefer- 
ence accorded  to  rubber  is  justly  earned.  In  resilience  it  far 
outlives  leather,  its  most  formidable  rival ;  it  drinks,  as  the 
French  say,  a  stone  which  would  perceptibly  lift  a  leather 
tire,  and  severely  jar  a  tire  of  wood  or  steel.  Motor-car 
tires  become  hot  at  high  speeds,  so,  to  avoid  further  vul- 
canization, they  contain  but  little  free  sulphur.  A  dusty 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  207 

bloom  on  a  tire  betokens  its  presence.  Much  ingenuity  has 
been  exercised  upon  sectional  tires,  and  upon  chains  in- 
tended to  bite  the  dust.  Many  heavy  freight  wagons  bear 
tires  of  solid  rubber  in  twins,  each  wheel  having  two  distinct 
series  of  rubber  pads  or  paws  which  surround  it.  Each 
circle  has,  let  us  suppose,  thirty  intervals  without  rubber; 
opposite  each  interval  on  the  adjoining  circle  appears  a 
rubber  paw.  A  wheel  thus  armed  runs  better  than  if  its 
rubber  were  disposed  in  one  uniform  circle.  A  further  ad- 
vantage is  that,  if  a  paw  becomes  worn  or  damaged,  it  is 
easily  and  cheaply  replaced,  whereas  a  pneumatic  tire  would 
need  costly  repairs. 

Good  tires  are  never  made  of  pure  rubber,  but  of  rubber 
combined  with  such  metallic  oxides  as  produce  a  compound 
more  tough  and  durable.  But  in  many  wares  the  admix- 
tures of  cheap  ingredients  with  rubber  are  adulterants  and 
nothing  else.  Not  only  mechanical  mixture  with  rubber, 
but  the  chemistry  of  vulcanization  has  been  closely  studied 
of  late  years.  For  boots,  shoes,  and  raincoats,  three  per 
cent,  of  sulphur  is  added  to  rubber ;  of  this  quantity  two 
per  cent,  combines,  leaving  one  per  cent.  free.  Vulcaniza- 
tion takes  place  only  when  there  is  a  little  sulphur  in  ex- 
cess. For  mechanical  goods  and  mold  work,  as  much  as 
six  to  ten  per  cent,  of  sulphur  is  admixed;  in  vulcanites 
and  other  hard  goods,  the  proportion  becomes  one-half.  For 
all  that  many  diverse  processes,  with  and  without  heat,  have 
sought  to  supplant  Goodyear's  method,  his  practice  to-day 
is  but  little  departed  from.  That  remarkable  man  struck 
the  bull's-eye  of  his  target;  nothing  but  its  outer  circles 
remain  for  his  successors. 

Goodyear  was  not  a  mere  draftsman,  to  sketch  a  design 
and  go  no  further.  When  he  had  outlined  a  lifeboat  and 
its  sail,  for  instance,  he  knew  no  rest  until  that  boat  was 
launched  and  its  sail  unfurled.  His  workshop  afforded  him 
facilities  but  scant  as  compared  with  those  of  the  well- 


ao8          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

appointed  factories  now  vulcanizing  his  wares,  so  he  sought 
to  lay  one  of  these  concerns  under  contribution.  From 
among  them  he  chose  the  Naugatuck  Company  of  Connec- 
ticut, directed  by  personal  friends,  manufacturing  on  a  vast 
scale  elastics  for  shoes,  suspenders,  and  the  like.  It  was 
agreed  that  in  their  mixing-rooms  and  ovens  Goodyear 
should  have  new  compounds  tested  and  new  articles  pro- 
duced. But  the  inventor  found  it  so  difficult  to  have  his 
instructions  carried  out,  that  he  soon  abandoned  the  at- 
tempt. In  experiences  of  this  kind,  he  discovered  how  wide 
a  gulf  divides  manufacturers  from  researchers.  Often 
when  he  broached  a  fresh  project  or  design  to  a  man  of 
business,  he  met  with  the  remonstrance :  "  Why  bother  to 
test  novelties  when  so  many  wares  devised  long  ago  enjoy 
a  profitable  demand  ?  " 

Goodyear's  first  invention  in  rubber  was  an  improved 
valve  for  a  life-preserver.  This,  it  will  be  remembered,  he 
offered  to  the  New  York  agent  of  the  Roxbury  Company, 
whose  approval  of  his  ingenuity  heartened  him  greatly. 
From  the  hour  when  first  he  examined  a  life-preserver, 
until  the  close  of  his  life,  nothing  molded  of  rubber  was 
oftener  in  Goodyear's  mind  than  his  devices  for  safety  at 
sea.  He  gave  months  to  designing  and  testing  life-pre- 
servers shaped  like  accordions,  and  in  other  ingenious  forms. 
He  wished  that  every  table  and  chair,  cushion  and  foot- 
stool, bolster  and  pillow,  aboard  ship,  should  be  hollow  and 
instantly  inflatable,  to  insure  escape  from  peril.  He  be- 
lieved the  constant  loss  of  life  at  sea  to  be  mainly  due  to 
sheer  neglect.  Regarding  his  devices  he  wrote : 

"  A  proper  investigation  and  public  trial  of  the  proposed 
articles  will  demonstrate  that  there  is  no  real  necessity  for 
such  constant  loss  of  life  by  mariners  as  now  occurs. 
Must  men  continue  to  be  drowned  because  their  fathers 
were  ?  Must  treasures  continue  to  go  to  the  bottom  of  the 
deep  because  there  are  offices  where  they  can  be  insured? 


/ 


HORSEMAN  IN  WATERPROOFS 

[Drawn  by  Charles  Goodyear.] 


i. 


LIFE- Bo  AT 

[Drawn  by  Charles  Goodyear.] 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  209 

The  loss  to  the  world  is  none  the  less  on  that  account, 
and  such  a  state  of  things  need  not,  and  ought  not,  to  exist." 

In  his  endeavor  to  safeguard  the  mariner,  Goodyear  was 
thwarted  less  by  declared  opposition  than  by  stolid  indiffer- 
ence. Nobody  but  himself  took  to  heart  the  drownings 
which  year  by  year  he  summed  up  with  grief  and  indigna- 
tion. He  marveled  that  millions  of  pairs  of  galoshes  and 
suspenders  should  be  sold  every  twelvemonth,  and  seldom  a 
swimmer's  belt,  and  never  a  rubber  lifeboat.  He  began  to 
see  how  much  the  art  of  the  merchant  is  needed  to  create 
a  market  for  the  inventor,  whose  wares,  without  an  adroit 
and  persistent  canvass,  may  utterly  miss  public  favor.  Re- 
viewing these  and  other  obstacles  to  success,  Goodyear  said, 
toward  the  close  of  his  volume  on  "  Gum  Elastic": 

".  .  .  It  is  a  mistaken  notion  that  an  invention  consists  in 
the  first  vague  idea  of  it.  It  takes  far  more  than  that  to  en- 
title one  to  the  merit  of  an  invention,  for,  between  the  bare 
conception  of  an  idea,  and  the  demonstration  of  the  prac- 
ticability and  utility  of  the  thing  conceived,  there  is  almost 
always  a  vast  amount  of  labor  to  be  performed,  time  and 
money  to  be  spent,  and  innumerable  difficulties  and  preju- 
dices to  be  encountered,  before  the  work  is  accomplished. 
An  individual  who  performs  all  that  is  necessary  in  these 
ways  to  bring  an  improvement  to  the  notice  of  the  public, 
and  causes  them  to  appreciate  and  understand  it  by  dint  of 
perseverance,  is  in  some  countries  considered  the  author 
of  an  invention,  even  though  the  first  idea  did  not  originate^ 
with  him. 

"  It  is  often  repeated  that  '  necessity  is  the  mother  of 
invention.'  It  may  with  equal  truth  be  said  that  inventors 
are  the  children  of  misfortune  and  want.  Probably  no 
class  of  the  community,  in  any  country,  receive  a  smaller 
compensation  for  their  labors  than  do  inventors.  A  volume 
might  be  written  on  the  peculiar  difficulties  and  embarrass- 
ments to  which  they  are  subject,  but  the  whole  may  be 
summed  up  in  a  few  words, — as  a  general  rule  their  labors 
begin,  continue,  and  end  in  '  necessity.'  Their  hard  fortune 


210         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

often  calls  forth  the  expression  of  pity  and  compassion  from 
the  public ;  at  the  same  time,  there  are  too  many  ever  ready 
to  encroach  upon  their  inventions.  However  valuable  and 
important  an  improvement  may  be,  it  is  seldom  that  the 
rightful  owners  are  benefited  by  it.  There  is,  however,  in 
such  cases  one  alleviating  and  consoling  reflection  to  well- 
disciplined  minds, — success  has  crowned  their  attempt,  and 
they  can  leave  the  world  better  off  for  having  lived  in  it. 
In  most  cases  an  inventor  at  first  knows  little  of  the  dif- 
ficulties he  has  to  encounter.  His  attempts  may  be  foreign 
to  his  occupation,  obliging  him  to  resort  to  a  mechanic  or  a 
machinist  for  the  various  parts  of  the  thing  he  designs.  He 
usually  finds  it  the  most  difficult  of  all  tasks  to  persuade 
mechanics  to  perform  a  novel  task  whose  utility  they  do  not 
perceive.  Often  a  well-conceived  plan  comes  to  failure,  be- 
cause wrong  materials  are  chosen,  or  from  a  defect  or  over- 
sight in  construction.  Defeat  only  confirms  the  projector  in 
his  conviction  that  he  is  right ;  he  sees  in  his  mind's  eye  his 
invention  working  as  much  to  the  admiration  of  others  as 
to  that  of  himself.  So  he  renews  his  attempts  until  the 
machine  does  all  he  expected  it  to  do.  But  he  has  little 
idea  how  much  remains  to  be  done  to  make  his  invention 
profitable.  He  has  probably  exhausted  his  own  resources 
and  the  resources  and  patience  of  his  friends  in  completing 
his  devices;  he  has  not  the  means  needed  to  manufacture 
the  article,  and  this  deprives  him  of  all  reward  for  his  in- 
genuity and  toil. 

"  He  takes  out  letters-patent  for  his  invention,  which  he 
counts  as  property,  but  which  amount  chiefly  to  a  permis- 
sion by  government  to  fight  his  own  battles.  Patents  are 
commonly  evaded,  and  the  patent  law  is  so  ineffectual  for 
their  protection,  that  the  public  does  not  value  them  much, 
nor  can  they  be  expected  to  do  so,  for  in  too  many  cases 
the  purchase  of  a  patent  is  equivalent  to  the  purchase  of  a 
lawsuit.  If  the  discovery  is  of  unlimited  importance  and 
universal  application,  the  danger  of  its  loss  by  the  inventor 
is  proportioned  to  its  utility  and  importance.  There  will 
be  found  persons  in  every  community  unprincipled  enough 
to  pirate  the  invention,  especially  if  they  can  make  some 
slight  alteration  and  evasion  of  it.  The  community  cannot 
always  be  expected  to  understand  the  merits  of  the  cause; 
or,  if  they  do,  since  competition  has  given  the  thing  they 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  211 

want  at  less  cost,  they  are  apt  to  encourage  encroachments 
for  an  interested  reason.  The  thing,  they  say,  is  so  simple 
that  any  one  would  have  thought  of  it,  and  no  one  is  en- 
titled to  the  monopoly  of  thought.  It  would  be  certainly 
more  just  to  say  that  the 'inventor  should  be  rewarded  on 
that  very  account,  because  his  improvement  is  simple  and, 
therefore,  practical,  avoiding  the  great  error  in  most  at- 
tempts at  improvements,  that  of  complication  and  mystery." 

These  remarks  plainly  tell  us  that  Goodyear's  experience, 
as  a  patentee  had  been  unfortunate.  In  truth,  he  was 
dilatory  in  seeking  such  protection  as  patents  might  grant 
him.  He  always  wished  to  incorporate  in  his  claims  the 
advances  in  method  which  constantly  arose  under  his 
hands.  And  he  found  that  every  new  step  but  broadened 
the  horizon  for  fresh  experiment  and  research.  Thus  it 
came  about  that  his  American  patent  was  dated  June  15, 
1844,  just  five  years  after  his  discovery  of  vulcanization. 
This  delay  opened  the  door  to  a  shrewd  rival  in  England. 
For  twenty  years  prior  to  Goodyear's  discovery,  Macintosh 
&  Company,  of  London,  had  manufactured  rainproof  coats 
of  gum  elastic,  using  naphtha  as  a  solvent.  A  partner  in 
this  firm,  Thomas  Hancock,  received  from  America  a  piece 
of  vulcanized  rubber,  unaccompanied  by  any  information 
as  to  how  it  had  been  produced.  Its  odor,  however,  be- 
trayed the  presence  of  sulphur.  Mr.  Hancock  had  long 
been  combining  sulphur  and  rubber  in  his  own  experiments : 
his  next  steps  are  recalled  in  his  "  History  of  India  Rub- 
ber Manufactures  " : 

"  I  found  that  when  submitting  the  compounds  contain- 
ing sulphur  to  heat  it  was  necessary,  after  ascertaining  the 
temperatures  that  suited  any  compoufid,  to  find  also  the 
period  of  exposure  to  heat  that  produced  the  best  result. 
Until  I  noticed  this  necessity  I  was  often  sadly  perplexed,  as 
the  same  compounds  exposed  to  the  same  temperature  were 
sometimes  good  and  sometimes  bad  in  practice;  the  varia- 


212          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

tion  in  time  being  often  from  one  hour  to  between  six  and 
seven  hours,  or  even  more.  All  the  way  through  these  ex- 
periments for  producing  the  'change'  (vulcanization)  I 
had  no  other  guide,  of  course,  than  to  watch  for  any  promis- 
ing appearance  in  any  of  the  scraps  and  to  improve  upon 
them.  But  I  now  know  I  was  frequently  thwarted  by  my 
want  of  information  as  to  what  caused  the  differences  in 
appearance,  and  particularly  in  regard  to  the  temperature 
I  employed,  which  was  somewhat  at  random,  knowing  how 
freely  I  could  use  it,  within  certain  limits,  without  injury. 

"  A  thought  now  occurred  to  me  that  in  the  end  proved 
extremely  valuable.  Revolving  in  my  mind  some  of  the 
effects  produced  by  the  high  degree  of  heat  I  had  employed 
in  making  solutions  of  rubber  and  sulphur,  in  oil  of  turpen- 
tine, it  occurred  to  me  that,  as  the  melting-point  of  sulphur 
is  only  about  240°,  which  I  knew  would  not  be  injurious  to 
rubber,  it  would  be  well  to  see  what  would  ensue  on  im- 
mersing a  slip  of  sheet  rubber  in  sulphur  at  its  lowest  melt- 
ing-point. I  accordingly  melted  some  sulphur  in  an  iron 
vessel,  and  immersed  in  it  some  slips  of  cut  sheet  rubber 
about  half  an  inch  wide  and  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  thick. 
After  they  had  been  immersed  for  some  time  I  examined 
them,  and  found  that  the  surface  had  assumed  a  yellowish- 
tan  color.  I  immersed  them  again.  On  withdrawing  them 
the  second  time  I  cut  one  of  them  across  with  a  wet  knife, 
and  found  that  the  rubber  was  tinged  of  this  tan  color  to  a 
considerable  depth.  I  immersed  them  again.  On  the  third 
examination  I  found  that  the  tan  color  had  quite  penetrated 
through  the  slip.  This  was  strong  evidence  that  the  rubber 
had  freely  absorbed  the  sulphur,  and  I  fully  expected  to  find 
these  slips  '  changed.'  In  this  I  was  greatly  disappointed, 
for,  on  applying  the  tests,  I  found  that  not  the  least  '  chang- 
ing '  effect  had  been  produced.  I  now  replaced  them  and 
raised  the  temperature  of  the  sulphur  and  allowed  them  to 
remain  immersed  for  a  considerable  time.  On  the  fourth 
withdrawal  I  found  to  my  great  satisfaction  that  one  slip  of 
the  rubber  was  perfectly  '  changed,'  retaining  the  same  tan 
color  throughout.  The  other  slips  remained  in  the  sulphur 
while  the  examination  was  going  on,  and  on  withdrawing 
them  I  found  the  lowermost,  the  slip  nearest  the  fire,  turn- 
ing black  and  becoming  hard  and  horny,  thus  at  once  in- 
dubitably opening  to  me  the  true  source  and  process  of 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  213 

producing  the  '  change  '  in  all  its  pure  and  pristine  sim- 
plicity." 

Hancock,  having  thus  arrived  at  the  vulcanization  of  sur- 
faces by  immersing  gum  elastic  in  molten  sulphur,  took  out 
a  patent  in  England  on  November  21,  1843.  It  was  not 
until  January  30,  1844,  that  Goodyear,  through  his  agent, 
William  Newton,  patented  his  method  in  England.  On  the 
8th  of  the  same  month,  this  agent  secured  a  patent  in 
France. 

By  this  lack  of  promptitude  as  a  patentee,  Goodyear  lost 
severely.  And  yet  he  was  a  man  of  much  shrewdness,  as 
we  may  observe  in  the  publicity  which  he  managed  to  give 
his  wares.  In  1849,  he  heard  that  two  years  later  London 
would  hold  an  International  Exhibition;  he  resolved  that 
his  display  should  be  one  of  the  most  striking  in  the  Crystal 
Palace,  and  it  was.  He  received  one  of  the  five  council 
medals  which  came  to  the  United  States.  Especially  com- 
mended by  the  official  judges  was  his  array  of  hard-rubber 
ware,  much  of  it  exquisite  in  design. 

In  August  of  the  next  year,  1852,  Goodyear's  case  against 
Horace  H.  Day,  an  infringer  of  his  patents,  came  before 
the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey. 
Daniel  Webster,  as  attorney  for  the  prosecution,  argued  this 
as  his  last  case,  with  all  his  wonted  eloquence  and  power. 
He  won  the  verdict,  receiving  as  his  fee  $10,000.  In  the 
course  of  his  plea,  the  great  lawyer  said: 

"  It  is  well  known  that  the  articles  manufactured  of  gum 
elastic  up  to  the  year  1834  were  entirely  useless.  If  they 
were  exposed  to  the  sun,  they  became  sticky;  you  could 
not  separate  them  after  their  surfaces  came  in  contact ;  and 
if  exposed  to  the  cold,  they  became  hard  and  rigid.  I  well 
remember  that  I  had  some  experience  in  this  matter  myself. 
A  friend  in  New  York  sent  me  a  very  fine  cloak  in  India 
rubber,  and  a  hat  of  the  same  material.  I  did  not  suc- 
ceed very  well  with  them.  I  took  the  cloak  one  day  and 


214          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

set  it  out  in  the  cold.  It  stood  very  well  by  itself.  I  sur- 
mounted it  with  the  hat,  and  many  persons  passing  by  sup- 
posed they  saw  standing  by  the  porch,  the  Farmer  of  Marsh- 
field." 

Mr.  Webster  continued : 

"  In  January,  1844,  Mr.  Goodyear  went  to  Naugatuck,  in 
Connecticut,  and  started  a  factory.  It  would  be  painful 
to  speak  of  his  extreme  want — the  destitution  of  his  fam- 
ily, half  clad,  he  picking  up  with  his  own  hands  little  billets 
of  wood  from  the  wayside,  to  warm  the  household — suffer- 
ing reproach — not  harsh,  for  no  one  would  bestow  that 
upon  him — receiving  indignation  and  ridicule  from  his 
friends.  Here  is  a  letter  of  his  written  in  a  good  spirit  and 
cheerful  vein,  but  particularly  affecting  from  that  circum- 
stance : 

"  '  DEBTORS'  PRISON,  BOSTON,  April  21,  1840. 
"  '  MR.  JOHN  HASKINS  OR  LUKE  BALDWIN  : 

"  '  GENTLEMEN — I  have  the  pleasure  to  invite  you  to  call 
and  see  me  at  my  lodgings,  and  to  communicate  with  my 
family,  and  possibly  to  establish  an  India  Rubber  Factory 
for  myself,  on  the  spot.  Do  not  fail  to  call  on  the  receipt 
of  this,  as  I  feel  some  anxiety  on  account  of  my  family. 
My  father  will  probably  arrange  my  affairs  in  relation  to 
this  Hotel,  which,  after  all,  is  perhaps  as  good  a  resting- 
place  as  any  on  this  side  of  the  grave, 
"'Yours  truly, 

"  '  CHARLES  GOODYEAR.'  " 

Later  in  his  plea,  Mr.  Webster  said : 

"  I  ask  again  if  there  is  anybody  else  than  Goodyear  who 
made  this  invention,  who  is  he?  Is  the  discovery  so  plain 
that  it  might  have  come  about  by  accident?  It  is  likely  to 
work  important  changes  in  the  arts  everywhere.  It  in- 
troduces quite  a  new  material  into  the  arts,  that  material 
being  nothing  less  than  elastic  metal.  It  is  hard  like  metal, 
and  elastic  as  pure  gum  elastic.  Why,  that  is  as  great 
and  momentous  a  phenomenon  occurring  to  men  in  the 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  215 

progress  of  their  knowledge,  as  it  would  be  for  a  man  to 
show  that  iron  and  gold  could  remain  iron  and  gold,  and  yet 
become  elastic  like  India  rubber.  Now,  this  fact  cannot 
be  denied ;  it  cannot  be  discredited ;  it  cannot  be  kept  out 
of  sight;  somebody  has  made  this  invention.  That  is  cer- 
tain. Who  is  he?  Mr.  Hancock  has  been  referred  to. 
But  he  expressly  acknowledges  Goodyear  to  be  the  first 
inventor.  I  say  that  there  is  not  in  the  world  a  human 
being  that  can  stand  up,  and  say  that  it  is  his  invention,  ex- 
cept the  man  who  is  sitting  at  that  table,  Charles  Goodyear." 

When  Mr.  Webster  had  won  his  case,  Goodyear,  accom- 
panied by  his  family,  took  passage  to  Europe.  His  claims 
as  a  patentee  in  America  were  greatly  strengthened  by  the 
decision  at  Trenton ;  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  the  interests 
of  his  European  rights,  and  to  promote  the  manufactures 
which  bore  his  name  throughout  Europe.  In  London  he 
was  called  upon  by  Mr.  Hancock's  partner,  Macintosh, 
the  famous  manufacturer  of  raincoats,  who  offered  him  one- 
half  the  Hancock  patent  to  relinquish  a  suit  for  infringe- 
ment. This  offer  Goodyear  declined,  believing  that  equity 
was  on  his  side;  but  the  legal  verdict  went  against  him. 

Mrs.  Goodyear  had  left  America  in  poor  health ;  to  her 
husband's  sore  affliction,  her  symptoms  grew  steadily  worse. 
In  March,  1853,  she  passed  away.  During  the  summer  of 
1854,  Goodyear  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Fanny 
Wardell,  of  London,  who  survived  him.  To  this  union 
three  children  were  born.  Of  these  the  only  survivor  is  a 
daughter,  Fanny,  the  wife  of  Dr.  Emil  Deckert,  of  the 
University  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main. 

In  1855,  Paris,  to  emulate  the  example  of  London,  held 
an  international  exposition  on  a  scale  surpassing  that  of  the 
British  metropolis.  Goodyear  contributed  a  palatial  booth, 
which,  with  its  contents,  cost  him  fifty  thousand  dollars, 
assembling  every  product  of  vulcanized  rubber  then  known. 
His  outlay  was  extravagant,  and,  joined  to  the  depredations 
of  an  agent,  his  purse  was  emptied  of  its  last  dollar.  He 


216          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

was  unable  to  pay  his  debts,  and  was  locked  up  in  Clichy 
prison,  near  Paris.  Toward  the  close  of  December  he  se- 
cured release,  and  at  once  posted  to  England  to  bring  to 
bay  certain  audacious  infringers.  He  had  scarcely  left  his 
steamer  when  he  was  arrested  on  a  claim  originating  in 
France.  His  friends  proffered  bail.  He  firmly  declined 
bail,  contending  that  the  claim  was  fraudulent.  This  fact 
he  clearly  proved  in  court,  when  he  was  at  once  honorably 
discharged. 

""  All  this  strife,  legal  and  financial,  came  upon  a  man  who 
had,  for  years,  suffered  disabling  infirmity.  With  the 
shadow  of  death  upon  his  brow,  Goodyear  took  to  his  bed. 
He  bade  his  family  good-by,  and  sent  farewells  to  his 
friends.  His  wife's  skilful  nursing  led  to  a  measurable  re- 
turn of  strength.  Early  in  April,  1856,  he  was  able  to 
travel  to  Bath,  where  he  remained  until  May,  1858,  when 
he  sailed  for  New  York.  His  stay  in  Bath  was  clouded  by 
embarrassment.  Bad  health  prevented  his  giving  proper 
attention  to  his  business,  so  that  necessity  again  brought 
him  into  the  clutches  of  usurers.  To  pay  his  way  he  had 
to  pawn  his  wife's  jewelry,  and  his  own.  Meanwhile  his 
interests  in  America  had  fallen  into  confusion  through 
neglect.  Some  of  his  licensees  utterly  ignored  their  con- 
tracts. To  cap  the  climax,  his  trusted  attorney  embezzled 
a  large  sum  from  him.  Once  more  in  America,  Goodyear's 
affairs  were  brought  into  something  like  order,  and  his 
health  improved  a  little.  Most  justly  his  patent,  which  ex- 
pired in  1858,  was  renewed  for  seven  years,  in  view  of  the 
wholly  inadequate  returns  it  had  yielded  him.  With  the 
prospect  of  a  respectable  income  from  his  licenses,  Good- 
year decided  to  make  his  home  in  Washington,  where  he 
hoped  for  peace  and  comfort  in  what  remained  to  him  of 
life.  True  to  his  chief  purpose  as  an  inventor,  he  fitted 
up  in  his  house  a  large  tank  for  tests  of  models  of  life-saving 
craft.  One  morning,  while  occupied  with  these  models, 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR  217 

word  came  from  Connecticut  that  his  daughter  was  dying. 
That  he  might  clasp  her  hand  in  farewell,  Goodyear  started 
northward  at  once.  On  his  way  he  was  obliged,  through 
sheer  exhaustion,  to  pause  in  New  York,  taking  quarters  at 
the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel.  There  he  learned  of  his  daughter's 
death.  That  he  should  have  been  absent  in  her  last  hours 
was  a  final  blow  to  this  loving  father.  His  symptoms  every 
hour  grew  more  alarming,  and  soon  all  hope  was  at  an  end. 
Early  on  Sunday  morning.  July  I,  1860,  as  the  belfries  of 
Fifth  Avenue  pealed  their  invitation  to  worship,  he 
breathed  his  last. 


JOHN   ERICSSON 

A  BOY  of  nine,  lively  and  vigorous,  is  seated  on  a  bench 
in  a  little  Swedish  village.  He  is  showing  his  father  and 
mother  a  tiny  pump,  a  toy  sawmill,  and  a  small  set  of  draw- 
ing-instruments;  he  has  made  them  all  with  no  other  tools 
than  the  jack-knife  and  gimlet  beside  him.  The  time  is 
1812,  a  year  memorable  in  American  annals ;  the  place  is 
Forsvik  in  Northern  Sweden;  and  this  wonderful  boy  is 
John  Ericsson,  who  became  the  greatest  engineer  that 
Europe  ever  bestowed  upon  America.  His  father,  Olof 
Ericsson,  was  a  man  of  education,  who  for  some  years 
worked  a  small  mine  which  he  owned  in  part.  He  was 
sadly  lacking  in  business  ability,  so  that,  after  more  than 
one  call  from  the  bailiff,  his  decent  little  property  slipped 
through  his  fingers.  Notwithstanding  the  poverty  which 
thus  befell  him,  he  was  faithful  and  most  generous  in  the 
education  of  his  three  children.  Ericsson's  mother  was  of 
Flemish  descent,  with  a  Scottish  strain  in  her  blood :  she 
was  a  woman  of  brains  and  force  of  character.  It  was 
from  her  that  John  Ericsson  came  by  his  unbending  will 
and  tireless  energy.  From  the  very  first  his  bent  was 
toward  construction  and  nothing  else.  As  a  child  in  his  na- 
tive Langbanshyttan  for  hours  together  he  would  watch  the 
machinery  of  his  father's  mine,  discovering  how  the  wheels 
and  pinions  were  built,  how  they  moved,  and  what  they  did. 

When  Ericsson  was  eight  years  old  his  father  removed  to 
Forsvik,  a  hundred  miles  away,  as  foreman  of  a  gang  of  rock 
blasters  on  the  Gota  Canal,  designed  to  carry  the  waters  of 
Lake  Venern  into  the  North  Sea.  As  the  work  proceeded,  it 
drew  from  England  a  good  many  men  trained  by  Telford, 
the  famous  builder  of  canals.  From  among  them  Olof  Erics- 

218 


[From  the  painting  by  K.  S.  MacCord,  1889.] 


JOHN  ERICSSON  219 

son  engaged  teachers  for  his  two  sons,  Nils  and  John. 
John's  course  included  chemistry,  algebra,  and  geometry. 
He  was  already  a  good  draftsman  when  these  lessons  be- 
gan ;  he  was  now  taught  field-drawing,  in  which  he  soon 
excelled.  From  the  English  controller  of  works  nearby 
John  learned  English,  and,  as  he  spoke  it  whenever  he  had  a 
chance,  he  was  soon  proficient.  Meantime,  in  the  variety 
of  work  going  on  around  him,  the  lad  received  instruction 
as  telling  as  that  of  classrooms.  The  details  of  blasting 
and  excavating,  of  grading  and  building,  were  day  by  day 
drawing  out  his  great  natural  powers  to  observe,  and  to  knit 
cause  to  consequence.  It  was  a  striking  case  of  rich  soil 
enjoying  the  best  culture.  Years  afterward  a  friend  said 
to  Ericsson :  "  It  is  a  pity  you  did  not  graduate  from  a 
technological  institute."  Ericsson  replied :  "  No,  it  was 
very  fortunate.  Had  I  taken  a  course  at  such  an  institution 
I  should  have  acquired  such  a  belief  in  authorities  that  I 
should  never  have  been  able  to  develop  originality  and 
make  my  own  way  in  physics  and  mechanics,  as  I  now  pro- 
pose to  do." 

That  John  Ericsson  was  a  born  commander  was  proved 
in  his  fourteenth  year,  when  he  was  given  charge  of  six 
hundred.  Swedish  troops  employed  as  laborers  on  the  Gota 
Canal :  he  was  then  so  short  that  he  had  to  stand  on  a  stool 
to  reach  the  eye-piece  of  his  leveling  instrument.  At  seven- 
teen, three  years  later,  he  was  irresistibly  drawn  to  military 
life;  who  could  tell  but  that  he  might  become  a  general 
and  win  national  renown?  He  joined  the  Twenty- third 
Rifle  Corps,  and  soon  Ensign  Ericsson  was  one  of  the  best 
marksmen  on  its  roster.  By  grace  of  the  Crown  Prince  of 
Sweden  he  was  accorded,  in  1827,  when  he  was  twenty- four, 
the  rank  of  captain  in  the  Swedish  Army,  a  title  which  he 
retained  with  pride  as  long  as  he  lived.  This  sally  into 
the  profession  of  arms  threatened  the  loss  of  Ericsson  to 
the  engineering  world.  It  but  added  a  new  field  to  the 


220          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

empire  in  which  he  became  the  unapproached  master.  He 
now  took  up  with  enthusiasm  the  study  of  guns,  and  was 
soon  drawing  their  details  as  swiftly  and  accurately  as  in 
later  years  he  drew  plans  for  engines  and  hoists,  bridges 
and  culverts.  From  the  contours  of  guns  he  passed  to  a 
study  of  the  explosive  forces  which  guns  are  built  to  resist. 
His  experiments  included  all  the  explosives  then  used  in 
Sweden,  and  he  became  familiar  with  8o-pounders  on  the 
Baltic,  at  a  time  when  there  was  nothing  larger  than  a 
4O-pounder  in  the  United  States  Navy.  It  was  in  these  days 
and  nights  of  eager  study  that  Ericsson  acquired  a  firm 
grasp  of  military  and  naval  practice,  to  stand  him  in  good 
stead  in  after  life,  and  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

A  word  as  to  Ericsson,  the  man,  as  he  now  stood  on  the 
threshold  of  his  career : 

"  At  twenty-one,"  says  his  biographer,  Mr.  W.  C.  Church, 
"  he  is  described  as  handsome  and  dashing,  with  a  cluster  of 
thick,  brown,  glossy  curls  encircling  his  white  massive  fore- 
head. His  mouth  was  delicate  but  firm,  nose  straight,  eyes 
light  blue,  clear,  and  bright,  with  a  slight  expression  of 
sadness,  his  complexion  brilliant  with  the  freshness  and  glow 
of  healthy  youth.  The  broad  shoulders  carried  most 
splendidly  the  proud,  erect  head."  * 

At  that  early  age  Ericsson  had  already  left  Sweden,  pro- 
ceeding to  Havre,  where  he  joined  the  staff  of  M.  Mazeline, 
the  famous  shipbuilder.  Here  he  remained  about  a  year, 
learning  much  about  the  design  and  construction  of  ships, 
and  comparing  the  newly  devised  screw  propellers  of  Delisle 
and  Sauvage.  That  of  Sauvage  commended  itself  to  him, 

*From  "The  Life  of  John  Ericsson,"  by  William  Conant  Church, 
two  volumes,  fully  illustrated,  copyright  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons, 
New  York,  1890.  By  the  kind  permission  of  its  publishers  this  work 
has  served  as  the  chief  source  of  information  in  writing  this  chapter. 
Mr.  Church  was  for  years  an  intimate  friend  of  Captain  Ericsson, 
who  appointed  him  to  be  his  biographer. 


JOHN  ERICSSON  221 

and,  in  improving  its  contour  at  a  later  day,  he  scored  one 
of  the  triumphs  of  his  career.  Tradition  has  it  that  Erics- 
son chafed  under  the  iron  discipline  of  his  French  employer, 
so  that  he  turned  his  eyes  to  England,  where  he  sought  a 
market  for  a  new  motor.  With  an  old  experiment  of  his 
father's  in  mind,  he  had  designed  before  he  left  home  an 
engine  whose  working  cylinder  should  be  filled  with  flame 
instead  of  steam.  When  his  plans  were  embodied  in  brass 
and  iron,  the  engines  worked  perfectly,  and  Ericsson  for 
the  first  time  knew  a  creator's  joy.  With  $270  in  bor- 
rowed cash,  he  went  to  England,  arriving  there  on  May  18, 
1826,  and  at  once  set  up  his  engine  for  a  new  test.  It  had 
been  a  success  in  Sweden,  where  its  fuel  was  wood.  In 
England  the  fierce  heat  of  coal  rapidly  destroyed  its  work- 
ing parts.  His  invention  a  failure,  Ericsson  sought  em- 
ployment as  an  engineer.  Even  to  a  casual  eye  the  superi- 
ority of  the  man  was  always  manifest:  to  the  discerning 
vision  of  a  master  engineer  and  manufacturer,  John 
Braithwaite,  of  London,  Ericsson  was  just  the  assistant* he 
was  looking  for.  He  engaged  him  at  once,  and  soon  ad- 
mitted him  to  a  partnership,  the  firm  becoming  Braithwaite 
&  Ericsson. 

The  originality  of  the  young  Swede  had  now  wide  scope. 
At  tin  mines  near  Truro,  in  Cornwall,  he  installed  an  air 
compressor  which  worked  a  pump  at  a  considerable  distance. 
This  was  the  first  time  that  compressed  air  was  used  to 
transmit  motive-power.  Another  task  for  air  in  motion 
next  engaged  him.  He  had  long  known  that  a  blacksmith 
intensifies  a  blaze  by  a  bellows;  why  not  reap  like  profit 
by  attaching  bellows  to  the  furnace  of  a  steam  boiler?  From 
bellows  in  this  application  he  soon  passed  to  a  centrifugal 
blower,  a  device  which  he  patented  in  1828.  In  so  doing 
he  was  a  pioneer  of  a  new  and  great  economy,  that  of 
mechanical  draft,  which  heightens  the  value  of  all  fuels, 
and  makes  it  feasible  to  burn  low-grade  peats,  refuse  from 


222          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

sugar-cane,  and  the  like,  with  thoroughness.  In  1829  Erics- 
son installed  a  boiler  with  a  blower  on  the  Victory,  which 
Captain  John  Ross  commanded  on  his  Arctic  expedi- 
tion. It  was  for  this  boiler  that  Ericsson  devised  his  first 
surface  condenser, — an  invention  of  remarkable  nativity, 
well  worth  recalling.  James  Watt,  David  Napier,  and  other 
inventors  had  sought  to  replace  water  jets  by  surface-con- 
densers, only  to  be  foiled  by  a  slowness  of  action  which 
Ericsson  overcame.  His  firm  was  employed  by  Felix  Booth, 
a  London  distiller,  to  build  his  refrigerators  and  coolers. 
These  consisted  of  thin  copper  tubes,  inclosing  the  vapor  or 
liquor  to  be  chilled,  and  securely  sealed  from  a  surrounding 
stream  of  cold  water.  At  that  time  the  exhaust  steam  from 
engines  was  condensed  by  a  jet  of  water  which  mingled  with 
the  condensed  steam  and  wasted  much  heat.  This  crude 
process  Ericsson  saw  could  be  gainfully  superseded  by  his 
distillery  cooler.  He  built  a  condenser  with  sealed  tubes 
to  contain  exhaust  steam,  around  which  tubes  might  course 
salt  or  fresh  water  to  reduce  the  steam  to  pure  water,  after- 
ward returned  to  the  boiler  for  another  cycle  of  duty.  Sur- 
face-condensers, derived  from  this  invention,  are  to-day  in- 
dispensable in  steamships  and  vessels  of  war.  In  addition 
to  building  a  surface-condenser  on  tfce  Victory,  Ericsson 
introduced  on  that  memorable  ship  the  plan,  now  universal 
in  vessels  of  war,  of  protecting  machinery  from  shot  by  plac- 
ing it  below  the  water-line. 

From  the  sea  this  tireless  innovator  returned  to  the  land. 
He  built  the  first  steam  fire  engine  ever  constructed,  and, 
using  a  forced  draft,  it  sent  a  stream  over  the  tall  chimneys 
of  a  London  brewery.  But  the  municipal  authorities  saw 
no  good  in  this  engine,  and  stuck  to  pumping  by  hand. 
What  if  the  water,  often  taken  from  gutters,  did  choke 
their  hose  with  gravel  and  filth  ?  A  steam  engine,  afloat  on 
a  steamboat  of  nine  miles  an  hour,  was  adopted  in  1835  for 
the  protection  of  London,  in  so  far  as  it  could  be  protected 


JOHN  ERICSSON 


223 


from  the  riverside ;  but  for  a  land  engine  London  had  to 
wait  until  1860,  thirty-two  years  after  Ericsson's  demonstra- 
tion. So  much  for  the  official  stupidity  and  inertia  which 
were  to  harass  and  balk  him  all  his  life. 

His  next  great  task  was  building  the  "  Novelty,"  a  loco- 
motive which  competed  with  Stephenson's  "  Rocket "  in 
October,  1829,  at  Rainhill,  for  a  prize  of  five  hundred 


THE  NOVELTY  LOCOMOTIVE 
Built  by  Ericsson  to  compete  with  Stephenson's  Rocket,  1829. 

pounds  offered  by  the  Liverpool  &  Manchester  Railway. 
The  successful  engine  was  to  draw,  at  ten  miles  an  hour, 
three  times  its  own  weight,  which  weight  was  not  to  ex- 
ceed six  tons ;  the  height  of  its  chimney  was  restricted  to 
fifteen  feet,  and  its  boiler  pressure  to  fifty  pounds  per  square 
inch.  It  must  consume  its  own  smoke:  its  price  was  to  be 
^55°  ( $2*677) .  Five  months  were  granted  to  the  competing 
builders,  but  when  Ericsson  heard  of  the  contest  only  seven 


224          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

weeks  of  this  period  remained.  Stephenson,  with  ample 
time  for  experimental  runs,  was  able  to  correct  minor  faults 
in  his  design  and  to  give  his  engine  thorough  workmanship. 
This  good  fortune  did  not  fall  to  Ericsson's  lot,  so  that, 
greatly  to  his  chagrin,  the  flue-sheets  of  his  "  Novelty  "  gave 
way  before  it  had  completed  the  prescribed  seventy  miles. 
Stephenson's  "  Rocket "  duly  finished  the  course,  and  won 
the  prize.  While  its  pace  never  exceeded  24  miles  an  hour, 
the  "  Novelty  "  reached  32  miles,  which  even  to-day  would 
be  creditable  speed.  In  design  the  "  Novelty  "  was  the  better 
engine  of  the  two:  its  connecting-rods  were  horizontal,  so 
that  they  ran  with  steadiness ;  those  of  the  "  Rocket "  were 
diagonal,  causing  a  severe  racking  motion  from  side  to 
side.  Stephenson  adopted  a  steam-blast  for  his  chimney: 
Ericsson  used  a  blowing-machine  with  better  effect. 

Although  Ericsson  was  defeated  at  Rainhill,  the  per- 
formance there  of  his  locomotive  was  so  remarkable  as 
greatly  to  heighten  his  reputation  as  an  engineer.  He 
showed  rare  versatility  in  the  tasks  he  now  took  up ;  let  us 
glance  at  two  of  them.  In  1831,  at  Birkenhead,  opposite 
Liverpool,  he  set  up  a  hollow  metal  drum,  fitted  inclined 
planes  upon  its  inner  surface,  and,  admitting  steam  at  the 
center,  the  drum  became  a  motor  whirling  900  feet  a  second. 
To  drive  a  pump,  also  of  Ericsson's  design,  this  swift  motor 
had  its  speed  reduced  by  hand-wheels ;  but  the  velocity  was 
so  high  as  to  ruin  the  belts.  Ericsson  then  built  another 
rotary  engine,  actuated  by  pistons,  only  to  score  another 
failure.  The  steam-turbine  was  as  yet  below  the  horizon,  to 
await  steels  of  new  tenacity,  machine-tools  of  utmost  preci- 
sion, amended  plans  of  lubrication,  and,  more  than  aught 
else,  a  feasible  method  for  the  reduction  of  steam  pressures, 
step  by  step,  until  zero  is  approached. 

All  his  life  long,  Ericsson  was  an  unsparing  critic  of  the 
steam  engine.  He  believed  it  wasteful,  but  he  never 
learned  just  how  wasteful  it  was.  In  his  early  days,  meas- 


JOHN  ERICSSON  225 

urement  as  a  science  and  an  art  had  not  reached  exactitude ; 
in  his  later  years,  he  neglected  its  lessons.  While  he  im- 
proved the  design  of  steam  engines  again  and  again,  and 
invented  important  adjuncts  for  their  boilers  and  cylinders, 
he  was  convinced  that  steam  would  soon  give  place  to  a 
better  prime-mover.  To-day  we  know  that  his  dissatisfac- 
tion was  well  grounded,  and  that  engines  using  oil,  or  gas, 
explosively,  are  much  the  most  economical  converters  of 
heat  into  work.  It  was  neither  oil  nor  gas,  but  air,  that 
Ericsson  chose  as  the  medium  by  which  he  hoped  to  super- 
sede steam.  Unfortunately  he  greatly  overestimated  the 
energy  contained  in  a  pound  of  coal  or  other  fuel.  He 
was  wont  to  quote  with  approval  the  dictum  of  Professor 
Harvefeldt  that  a  common  spirit-lamp  might  well  drive  an 
engine  of  100  horse-power.  All  this,  be  it  remembered, 
was  long  before  Joule,  in  1843,  nad  proved  that  a  pound 
of  the  best  coal  in  burning  gives  out  no  more  heat  than, 
fully  utilized,  would  yield  one  horse-power  for  5  hours  and 
42  minutes. 

In  ignorance  of  this  fundamental  fact,  Ericsson  expected 
far  too  much  from  his  regenerator.  This  device,  in  its 
simplest  form,  resembles  the  aspirator  of  metallic  gauze 
which,  a  few  years  ago,  was  worn  by  many  British  folk 
under  their  nostrils  in  winter.  The  air  as  exhaled  warmed 
the  gauze,  and  this  gauze  then  warmed  the  air  as  drawn 
through  it  into  the  lungs  from  the  atmosphere.  The  prin- 
ciple of  this  aspirator  was  applied  to  air  engines  by  Glaze- 
brook,  as  long  ago  as  1797,  in  an  English  patent.  His  de- 
vice was  improved  by  Lilley  in  1819,  and  by  the  Rev.  Rob- 
ert Stirling  in  1827.  In  1833,  Ericsson  perfected  a  new 
and  excellent  regenerator  for  the  caloric  engine,  whicrT  he 
patented  and  exhibited  that  year.  Through  a  fagot  of 
small  thin  copper  tubes  the  heated  air  passed  out  of  the 
working  cylinders  into  the  cooler.  On  the  outside  of  these 
tubes,  cold  air  from  the  cooler  passed  in  an  opposite  direc- 


226         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


ERICSSON  CALORIC  ENGINE,  1851 

a,  air-receiver,  b  b,  supply-cylinder,  e' ,  self-acting  valve  for 
letting  air  into,  and  e'  e' ,  self-acting  valve  for  letting  air  out  of  the 
same,  c,  supply-piston;  c',  piston-rod  of  the  same,  connected  to 
the  working-beam  of  the  engine,  d  d,  working-cylinder ;  d'  d\ 
holes  at  the  junctions  of  the  two  cylinders  through  atmospheric 
air  passes  in  and  out  freely,  e  e,  working  piston,  d"  d\  rods 
connecting  the  two  pistons  together,  e'" ,  air-tight  vessel,  below 
working  piston  filled  with  clay  and  charcoal  to  prevent  trans- 
mission of  heat  from  below.  //,  regenerator.  /',  discs  of  wire-net. 
gt  valve,  worked  by  engine,  to  admit  air  into  regenerator  and 
working-cylinder,  h,  valve  for  letting  air  out  of  same.  *'/',  pipe, 
open  to  atmosphere,  to  carry  off  air  after  its  passage  through 
engine,  k,  fire-place. 

tion  on  its  way  to  the  working  cylinders.  This  engine,  al- 
though only  of  five  horse-power,  had  a  working  piston  14 
inches  in  diameter.  It  was  this  necessity  for  large  dimen- 


JOHN  ERICSSON  227 

sions  which  proved  fatal  to  Ericsson's  hopes  that  air  was  to 
oust  steam  as  a  prime-mover.  In  the  course  of  his  long 
career  he  was  so  often  a  pathmaker  that,  perforce,  he  took 
a  wrong  turning  more  than  once.  In  choosing  air  as  the 
working  medium  of  his  engine,  he  fell  into  his  chief  and 
most  costly  error.  Whether  air  be  used  directly  from  the 
atmosphere,  or  is  compressed  before  use,  it  must  be  raised 
through  490°  Fahrenheit  to  be  doubled  in  pressure,  that  is,  it 
must  rise  from,  say,  60°  to  550°.  At  550°  the  metals  in  an 
engine  are  warped,  lubricants  are  burned  or  decomposed, 
and  the  destruction  of  working  parts  begins.  Hence  a 
lower  temperature,  of  about  390°,  marks  the  limit  to  which 
heating  is  safely  carried,  and  at  that  point  only  two-thirds 
is  added  to  the  initial  pressure  of  working  air.  Contrast 
this  with  steam,  which,  at  390°,  has  a  pressure  of  200  pounds 
to  the  square  inch,  with  no  risk  to  working  surfaces  from 
overheating.  Water,  too,  absorbs  heat  much  more  quickly 
than  does  air.  Since  1833,  the  steam  engine  has  been 
multiplied  about  tenfold  in  its  economy,  and  to-day  its  rivals 
are  not  air  engines,  but  motors  driven,  gun-fashion,  by  the 
explosions  of  oil-vapor  or  of  gas.  And  be  it  noted  that  the 
modern  air  engine  is  much  more  efficient  than  when  it  left 
Ericsson's  hands.  It  has  been  improved  by  Rider  so  as  still 
to  enjoy  a  field  in  pumping  on  farms,  plantations,  and  coun- 
try estates.  It  is  largely  used  for  irrigation,  and  for  the 
water  supply  of  villages  and  small  towns.  It  is  simple  in 
design,  asks  no  skill  in  its  attendant,  and,  as  it  needs  no 
water,  it  is  suited  to  arid  regions  such  as  those  of  Arizona 
and  New  Mexico.  Where  winter  is  long  arid  fuel  dear,  as 
in  parts  of  Northern  Canada,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  burn 
all  the  fuel  first  for  motive-power,  converted  into  electricity, 
and  then  warm  buildings  solely  with  exhausts  from  engines. 
In  such  places  caloric  engines  may  find  a  new  field. 

In  England,  as  in  Sweden  and  America,  Ericsson  was  a 
man  who  linked  himself  to  a  few  friends  and  no  more.     In 


228          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Liverpool  he  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Francis  B.  Ogden, 
Consul  for  the  United  States,  and  this  led  to  an  intimacy 
fraught,  as  we  shall  see,  with  consequences  of  great  mo- 
ment to  Ericsson.  Mr.  Ogden  was  an  observant  man,  with 
a  mechanical  turn  of  mind.  Inspecting,  as  he  often  did,  the 
instruments  on  board  vessels  in  port,  he  was  struck,  one 
day,  with  the  notion  that  the  ordinary  sounding  lead  could 
be  easily  improved.  He  gave  his  suggestion  for  an  improve- 
ment to  Ericsson,  who  thereupon  constructed  a  sounding 
gage  which,  slightly  modified,  is  in  general  use  to-day. 
Ericsson  took  a  glass  tube  filled  with  air,  closed  it  at  the  top, 
leaving  its  base  open;  as  this  tube  sank  in  the  sea,  its  air 
was  compressed  in  proportion  to  its  depth  of  immersion. 
This  depth  was  registered  on  a  dial  in  fathoms  or  feet.  A 
lump  of  tallow,  below  the  tube,  told  whether  it  had  struck 
bottom  or  not.  Thus,  for  the  first  time,  mariners  were 
enabled  to  take  sounding  without  stopping  their  ships,  af- 
fording them  a  new  means  of  safety.  Lord  Kelvin  im- 
proved this  tube  by  lining  it  with  silver  chromate,  discolored 
by  the  rising  water. 

This  device,  and  others  equally  ingenious,  were  not  the 
only  objects  of  Ericsson's  attention.  His  social  circle  in 
England,  though  limited,  was  large  enough  to  include  the 
woman  who  was  to  engage  his  heart.  Among  his  earliest 
acquaintances  in  England  was  Mr.  Charles  Seidler,  whose 
wife  had  a  half-sister,  Amelia  Byam.  When  Ericsson  first 
saw  her,  she  was  but  ten  years  of  age.  She  became  a  beau- 
tiful and  lovely  woman,  the  most  fascinating  he  had  ever 
beheld, — as  he  was  wont  to  say, — intelligent,  generous  in 
disposition,  and  highly  accomplished,  especially  in  music. 
When  Amelia  Byam  was  nineteen,  and  Ericsson  thirty-three, 
they  were  married  in  St.  John's  Church,  Paddington.  But 
Ericsson  was  already  wedded  to  his  engineering  projects, 
and  this  pre-occupation  meant  neglect  and  unhappiness  for 
his  wife.  In  1865  they  parted,  and  although  until  her  death. 


JOHN  ERICSSON  229 

in  1887,  they  corresponded,  they  never  met  again.  Only 
within  narrow  bounds  was  Ericsson  ever  master  of  the  art 
of  living  with  others.  He  was  kind  and  generous  to  the 
point  of  magnanimity,  but  his  temper  was  ungovernable,  or, 
at  least,  it  was  quite  ungoverned.  His  friends  loved  him; 
his  enemies  hated  him  with  all  their  hearts.  Where  he  felt 
himself  to  be  right,  it  was  hard  for  him  to  brook  opposition. 
In  plain  terms,  he  had  the  defects  of  his  virtues,  and  his 
masterful  will  often  sank  into  sheer  wilfulness.  In  the 
formative  years  of  youth  and  early  manhood  he  had  been 
much  the  ablest  mind  in  his  little  circle,  and  self-sufficiency 
became  his  habit,  and,  to  some  extent,  his  chief  defect. 
This  inured  to  his  originality  as  a  designer  and  an  inventor, 
but,  by  standing  aloof  from  his  peers,  he  often  missed  the 
victories  only  to  be  won  by  brigade  attack.  To-day  organ- 
ized corps  of  engineers  are  testing  steels,  cements,  and  con- 
cretes for  the  behoof  of  their  brethren  the  world  over ;  bolts 
and  screws,  girders  and  rails,  are  standardized;  fire-pre- 
vention proceeds  apace,  and  the  electrical  corrosion  of  metal 
structures  is  investigated.  Every  leader  draws  freely  upon 
the  new  knowledge  and  economy  thus  placed  at  his  service : 
in  requital  he  contributes  what  he  can  from  his  own  ex- 
periments and  experience;  so  that  practice  everywhere  may 
rise  to  the  level  of  the  best  anywhere.  Nothing  is  more 
remarkable  in  Ericsson's  career  than  his  ignorance  of  ad- 
vances in  physical  research,  turned  to  profitable  account  by 
scores  of  contemporary  engineers  who,  in  native  ability, 
hardly  stood  as  high  as  his  shoes. 

His  originality  of  conception  had  full  play  in  his  next 
great  task.  In  1833,  he  began  experiments  with  propellers 
of  various  contours,  on  the  London  &  Birmingham  Canal. 
Three  years  later  he  built  a  steamboat  model  whose  screw 
propeller  gave  it  a  speed  of  three  miles  an  hour.  Cheered 
by  this  pace  in  a  mere  model,  Ericsson  proceeded  to  build 
a  real  steamboat,  45  feet  long,  8  feet  beam,  and  3  feet 


230          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

draught.  She  was  launched  in  1837,  and  named  in  honor  of 
his  friend  in  Liverpool,  the  Francis  B.  Ogdcn.  Two  pro- 
pellers, 5  feet  3  inches  in  diameter,  were  so  fitted  to  the 
vessel  that  either  could  be  used.  This  little  steamer  moved 
at  ten  miles  an  hour,  and  Ericsson  invited  the  Lords  of  the 
Admiralty  to  take  passage  in  her  for  a  trip  on  the  Thames. 
They  came,  but  only  to  shut  their  eyes  to  plain  proof  that  a 
screw  was  a  better  propeller  than  paddles.  Quoth  the  Sur- 
veyor of  the  Royal  Navy,  Sir  William  Symonds :  "  Even  if 
the  screw  has  the  power  to  propel  a  vessel,  it  would  be 
found  altogether  useless  in  practice,  because,  the  power  be- 
ing applied  at  the  stern,  it  would  be  absolutely  impossible 
to  make  the  vessel  steer." 

A  few  months  later,  in  1837,  Ericsson  designed  a  steam 
engine  of  a  new  and  economical  type.  Its  two  cylinders 
worked  at  right  angles  to  each  other,  and  the  connecting- 
rod  coupled  to  their  one  crank-pin,  directly  turned  the  pro- 
peller shaft.  This  engine,  applied  to  the  iron  steamer  Rob- 
ert F.  Stockton,  in  1838,  was  the  first  direct-acting  engine 
ever  built  for  propulsion. 

The  screw  propeller  was  well  known  before  Ericsson  took 
it  up ;  but  he  was  the  first  to  sketch  a  form  so  correct  that 
at  the  outset  it  worked  with  high  economy.  Engines,  as 
then  employed  for  paddle-wheels,  were  much  too  slow  for 
the  direct  actuation  of  screws.  Ericsson's  chief  rival  in 
England,  Francis  Pettit  Smith,  employed  gearing  in  the 
actuation  of  his  screw.  Ericsson,  with  characteristic  ir- 
reverence, threw  tradition  to  the  winds,  and  coupled  his 
propeller  directly  to  a  fast  engine.  For  a  time  his  patent 
brought  him  a  fair  royalty,  but  he  had  to  maintain  a  con- 
stant fight  against  aggressors.  The  final  decision  in  the 
United  States  courts  was  that  the  screw  propeller  could  not 
be  protected  by  a  patent.  The  British  Government,  for  its 
use  of  the  screw,  divided  $100,000  equally  among  five  of 
its  designers,  Smith,  Lowe,  Ericsson,  Blaxland,  and  Wood- 


JOHN  ERICSSON  231 

croft.     A  striking  case,  this,  of  a  device  long  neglected,  and 
then  independently  revived  by  several  projectors  of  mark. 

All  his  life  long,  Ericsson  was  dominated  by  the  ingenuity 
and  boldness  of  his  conceptions :  seldom  did  he  ask,  "  If  car- 
ried out,  will  they  pay?"  Thus  his  career  in  England, 
though  professionally  brilliant,  was  a  failure  financially. 
In  1837,  at  a  time  of  widespread  panic,  the  firm  of 
Braithwaite  &  Ericsson  became  bankrupt,  and  Ericsson  for 
a  time  was  immured  in  the  Fleet,  the  famous  prison  for 
debtors.  That  year,  through  his  friend,  Mr.  Ogden,  he 
met  Lieutenant  Robert  F.  Stockton,  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  who  was  building  the  Delaware  &  Raritan  Canal, 
and  was  visiting  England  in  quest  of  funds  for  the  enter- 
prise. He  accompanied  Ericsson  on  a  trip  of  the  Francis  B. 
Ogden  from  London  Bridge  to  Greenwich,  and  was  so  grati- 
fied that  he  immediately  ordered  for  the  United  States  Navy 
two  iron  steamboats,  to  be  fitted  with  Ericsson's  steam 
machinery  and  propellers.  Returning  home,  Stockton  was 
promoted  to  a  captaincy,  and  ordered  to  the  Mediterranean. 
On  his  way  thither,  he  paused  in  London  to  consult  his 
friends,  Ogden  and  Ericsson,  and  to  witness  a  trial  trip  of 
one  of  the  vessels  he  had  ordered,  named  by  Ericsson  the 
Robert  F.  Stockton.  Its  length  was  70  feet,  its  beam  10 
feet,  its  draught  3  feet.  It  was  driven  by  a  double-cylinder, 
direct-acting  engine  of  50  horse-power.  An  Ericsson  spiral 
propeller  completed  its  machinery.  In  January,  1839,  Erics- 
son gave  her  a  trial  trip  on  the  Thames,  with  Mr.  Ogden, 
Lieutenant  Stockton,  and  thirty  other  passengers.  Her  suc- 
cess was  unqualified,  inducing  the  Times  to  forecast  "  im- 
portant changes  in  steam  navigation."  Ericsson  applied  his 
propeller  to  other  English  craft,  with  results  equally  good 
from  an  engineer's  point  of  view.  But  commercially  his 
demonstration  bore  no  fruit :  it  required  years  of  persuasion 
to  bring  British  officials  and  the  British  public  to  adopt  the 
screw  propeller. 


232          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

In  1839,  Ericsson  became  superintending  engineer  for  the 
Eastern  Counties  Railway;  while  in  its  service  he  devised  a 
machine  for  constructing  embankments.  For  some  unre- 
corded reason,  probably  his  constitutional  impatience  of  con- 
trol by  others,  he  grew  discontented  with  his  post,  and 
hailed  with  joy  the  prospect  of  a  visit  to  America.  Con- 
gress had  authorized  the  construction  of  three  warships, 
and,  on  Stockton's  assurance  that  Ericsson  would  be  al- 
lowed to  build  one  of  them,  he  sailed  for  New  York  on  the 
Great  Western,  arriving,  after  a  rough  voyage,  on  Novem- 
ber 23,  1839.  He  brought  complete  plans  for  a  steam 
frigate,  such  as  he  expected  to  build.  Every  detail  was 
worked  out,  including  engines  and  motive  power,  her  diverse 
guns,  and  the  mechanism  by  which  they  were  to  be  mounted, 
aimed,  and  fired.  This  Swedish  artilleryman,  fortified  by  his 
thirteen  years  of  observation  and  study  in  England,  offered 
America  plans  such  as  no  other  engineer  in  the  world  could 
then  prepare.  But  opposition  arose,  and  it  was  not  until 
1842,  three  years  later,  that  the  keel  was  laid  of  Ericsson's 
steam  frigate.  She  was  named  the  Princeton,  in  honor  of 
Captain  Stockton's  place  of  residence  in  New  Jersey. 

Meanwhile  Ericsson  found  much  to  do.  First  of  all,  he 
won  with  his  fire  engine  a  prize  from  the  Mechanics'  In- 
stitute of  New  York.  And  if  the  Navy  hesitated  about 
adopting  his  screw  propeller,  ordinary  shipowners  were 
alive  to  its  merits.  At  a  date  not  now  ascertainable,  prob- 
ably in  the  summer  of  1841,  the  canal  barge  Ericsson,  built 
from  his  plans,  plied  on  her  first  trip  from  Brockville  to 
Montreal,  one  hundred  and  forty  miles,  in  sixteen  hours. 
This  speed  was  moderate,  but  the  Ericsson  proved  her  abil- 
ity to  keep  a  safe  course  through  the  Longue  Sault  and 
Lachine  Rapids,  the  most  tumultuous  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Five  other  vessels,  equipped  with  the  Ericsson  propeller, 
were  placed  upon  the  Rideau  Canal  and  the  St.  Lawrence 
River,  so  that  the  name  "  propeller "  came  to  signify  a 


JOHN  ERICSSON  233 

freight  steamer  driven  by  a  screw.  In  the  United  States, 
the  Clarion,  plying  between  New  York  and  Havana,  was 
fitted  with  an  Ericsson  propeller,  as  also  were  seven  ves- 
sels steaming  out  of  Philadelphia  to  various  southern  ports. 
A  like  equipment  was  bestowed  upon  the  Revenue  Cutter 
Jefferson  on  Lake  Erie.  By  the  end  of  1843,  no  fewer 
than  forty-two  vessels  on  American  and  Canadian  waters 
were  actuated  by  Ericsson  screws. 

Ericsson  had  been  in  New  York  two  years  when,  in  the 
fall  of  1841,  Stockton  at  last  received  orders  from  the 
United  States  Navy  Department  to  build  a  steamer  of  600 
tons.  He  at  once  engaged  Ericsson  to  draw  its  plans  and 
supervise  its  construction,  with  the  distinct  understanding 
that  he  was  to  be  paid  for  his  services.  This  vessel,  duly 
launched  and  equipped,  was  named  the  Princeton.  She  was 
exhibited  with  triumph.  Unfortunately,  during  her  con- 
struction, Ericsson  and  Stockton  drifted  apart.  The 
irascible  and  imperious  designer,  conscious  of  his  powers, 
grew  weary  of  the  condescension,  not  to  say  the  arrogance, 
of  the  naval  martinet.  On  February  5,  1844,  Stockton  re- 
ported to  the  Navy  Department  that  the  Princeton  dis- 
played "  great  and  obvious  advantages  both  over  sailing- 
ships  and  steamers  propelled  in  the  usual  way  (by  paddles). 
With  engines  lying  snug  in  the  bottom  of  the  vessel,  out  of 
reach  of  an  enemy's  shot,  making  no  noise,  smoke,  or  agi- 
tation of  the  water,  she  can  surprise  an  enemy  and  at  pleas- 
ure take  her  own  position  and  her  own  distance/'  All  true. 
But  Ericsson  had  no  mention  in  a  report  from  which  might 
be  inferred  that  it  was  Stockton  who  had  designed  the 
Princeton. 

Her  inaugural  closed  with  a  shocking  fatality.  On  board 
were  guns  with  self-acting  locks,  patterned  after  a  wrought- 
iron  gun  which  Ericsson  had  designed  in  England  and 
brought  to  America.  This  model  weapon,  though  forged 
of  the  best  iron,  had  the  faults  of  a  forging :  strong  length- 


234          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

wise,  it  was  weak  transversely,  so  that  cracks  appeared  in 
its  trial  firing.  As  a  remedy,  Ericson  adopted  an  expedient 
now  universal.  Hoops  of  wrought-iron,  three  and  one-half 
inches  thick,  were  shrunk  over  the  breech  of  the  gun  up  to 
its  trunnion  bands.  These  hoops  were  arranged  in  two 
tiers,  one  above  another,  so  as  to  break  joints,  and  these 
joints  were  so  close  that  the  outer  band  seemed  a  single 
piece  of  metal.  Thus  reinforced,  the  gun  was  fired  about 
three  hundred  times  with  charges  varying  from  25  to  35 
pounds  of  powder,  and  with  shot  of  212  pounds,  so  as  to 
pierce  a  wrought-iron  target  4^  inches  thick.  Prompted 
by  this  amazing  result,  Stockton  designed  a  gun  of  his  own, 
which  he  called  the  "  Peacemaker."  It  was  duly  forged, 
and  then  sent  to  New  York  to  be  bored  and  finished  under 
Ericsson's  direction.  It  was  of  like  caliber  with  his  model 
gun,  twelve  inches,  but  a  foot  wider  at  the  breech,  and  much 
heavier  throughout.  Its  appearance  of  strength  was  decep- 
tive. Harm  had  been  suffered  under  the  forging  hammer, 
harm  not  discovered  until  too  late.  Ericsson,  with  a 
paternal  partiality  for  his  own  gun,  advised  Stockton  to  use 
it  instead  of  the  "  Peacemaker  "  on  the  inaugural  day,  but 
he  does  not  seem  to  have  doubted  the  strength  of  Stockton's 
gun.  However,  it  burst,  under  a  final  charge,  killing  sev- 
eral members  of  the  company,  and  severely  wounding  Cap- 
tain Stockton.  He  was  acquitted  of  blame  by  a  court  of 
inquiry  which  was  promptly  summoned.  He  had  slighted 
Ericsson,  who  now  stood  aloof  in  Stockton's  distress.  Their 
differences  naturally  grew  more  and  more  embittered,  as 
we  shall  observe.  Ericsson's  model  gun  on  the  Princeton 
had  proved  sound  and  safe,  thanks  to  its  reinforcing  hoops. 
This  source  of  strength  was  duly  remarked.  During  the 
Civil  War  the  Union  looked  to  Major  T.  J.  Rodman  and 
Captain  R.  C.  Parrott  for  its  heavy  guns,  and  these,  as 
forged  and  hooped,  were  lineally  descended  from  the  Erics- 
son weapon  on  the  Princeton. 


JOHN  ERICSSON  235 

Ericsson's  services  as  her  designer  and  builder  now  in- 
volved him  in  the  most  unpleasant  contest  of  his  life.  In 
March,  1844,  he  sent  to  the  Secretary  of  the  United  States 
Navy  a  bill  for  $15,080  for  professional  services  in  supervis- 
ing the  construction  of  the  Princeton,  including  $5,000  as 
inventor  and  designer  of  her  apparatus,  gun-carriage,  and 
spirit-level,  by  which  the  elevation  of  a  piece  of  ordnance 
might  be  readily  and  precisely  ascertained,  and  her  sliding 
chimney,  which  could  be  reduced  to  a  height  of  five  feet 
above  the  deck.  If  this  slight  projection  had  been  carried 
away,  or  damaged  by  a  shot,  the  draft,  because  forced, 
would  nevertheless  have  been  continued  with  efficiency. 
Ericsson's  bill  was  referred  to  Captain  Stockton,  who  wrote 
a  long  series  of  objections,  concluding:  "Captain  Erics- 
son, at  the  time  he  volunteered  his  services,  considered  that 
the  opportunity  accorded  him  to  exhibit  to  the  world  the  im- 
portance of  his  various  patents  would  be  satisfactory  re- 
muneration for  all  his  services  in  getting  them  up  on  so 
magnificent  a  scale." 

So  much  for  omitting  to  reduce  to  writing  a  weighty 
matter  of  business,  clearly  understood  at  the  outset,  and 
afterward  warped  by  a  bitter  personal  quarrel,  and  what 
Ericsson  termed  "  the  deep  rascality  of  Stockton."  Erics- 
son, at  the  beginning,  distinctly  agreed  that  if  his  plans  were 
successful  he  was  to  be  compensated.  The  success  of  his 
plans  was  acknowledged,  and  not  only  in  America,  but  in 
France  and  England,  where  they  received  the  flattery  of 
imitation.  Besides,  why  should  the  Navy  Department  re- 
fuse to  pay  him  for  services  strictly  professional  in  super- 
vising the  building  of  the  Princeton?  Merely  to  execute 
the  drawings  occupied  him  two  hundred  and  seven  days, 
and  his  pace  was  twice  that  of  an  ordinary  draftsman.  One 
hundred  and  thirteen  days  more  had  been  consumed  in  su- 
perintendence and  travel.  The  Naval  Committee  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  unanimously  reported  a  bill  to 


236          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

pay  Ericsson  his  claim,  but  the  House  defeated  it  by  a 
small  majority.  In  1848  a  similar  bill  was  defeated  by 
an  adverse  report  from  the  Senate  Naval  Committee.  In 
March,  1856,  the  Senate  ordered  that  Ericsson's  papers  be 
referred  to  the  Court  of  Claims,  then  recently  established. 
It  decided  in  Ericsson's  favor,  and  the  Senate  Committee 
reported  a  bill  for  its  payment.  Congress,  however,  neg- 
lected to  appropriate  the  money,  and  Ericsson  was  never 
paid. 

This  injustice,  and  much  ill  usage  on  the  part  of  na- 
tional officers  in  later  years,  soured  Ericsson  to  the  core. 
This  was  one  reason  why  he  never  really  became  an  Amer- 
ican, never  took  root  in  a  country  where  he  lived  continu- 
ously for  fifty  years.  At  the  first  refusal  of  payment  for 
his  work  on  the  Princeton,  his  anger  was  heightened  by  his 
dire  poverty,  solely  due  to  his  having  disbursed  as  much  as 
$6,000  in  anticipation  of  full  and  prompt  repayment.  How 
with  an  empty  purse  could  he  meet  his  pressing  debts  ?  At 
one  time  his  bank  balance  fell  to  $23.  On  September  16, 
1846,  he  wrote  to  his  friend,  John  O.  Sargent:  "  I  received 
your  letter  of  the  I4th  yesterday  afternoon,  and  opened  it 
with  a  trembling  hand.  My  worst  fears  were  realized,  and 
I  turned  nearly  crazy  for  a  few  minutes.  In  my  despair  I 
resorted  to  the  expedient  of  asking  Delamater  (the  engine 
builder)  to  help  me,  and  he  has  done  so  for  to-day,  ap- 
propriating the  funds  he  has  for  meeting  a  bill  at  the  end  of 
next  week.  Now,  if  in  addition  to  my  anxiety  already  ex- 
perienced, I  should  ruin  the  young  man's  credit  by  not  being 
able  to  refund  the  money  by  next  Wednesday,  I  shall  have 
to  cut  my  throat." 

From  this  pecuniary  distress  he  was  for  a  time  relieved 
by  the  sale  to  the  Government  of  the  steamer  Massa- 
chusetts, in  which  he  had  an  interest,  and  by  the  receipt  of 
$4,300  for  the  application  of  his  fresh-water  apparatus  to 
that  vessel. 


JOHN  ERICSSON  ,  237 

By  1848,  Ericsson  had  climbed  out  of  debt  by  sheer  hard 
work.  His  rage  against  Stockton  and  the  Government  had 
calmed  down :  in  October  of  that  year  he  was  naturalized  as 
a  citizen.  But  his  drawing-board  held  him  in  a  subjection 
never  relaxed :  he  took  no  interest  in  politics  until  slavery 
threatened  the  life  of  the  Union.  Then  his  soul  was 
aroused,  for  he  could  conceive  nothing  meaner  than  the 
desire  of  one  man  to  live  on  the  toil  of  another.  How 
nobly  and  indispensably  he  served  the  nation  we  shall  duly 
see. 

Versatile  in  an  extraordinary  degree,  Ericsson  at  this 
period  entered  many  diverse  fields,  always  as  a  conqueror. 
He  improved  his  surface-condenser  for  steamships,  giving 
it  an  engine  of  its  own,  so  as  to  be  independent  of  the  en- 
gine driving  the  screw.  Hence,  in  case  that  bad  weather,  or 
accident,  checked  or  stopped  the  propelling  engine,  the  task 
of  condensation  would  not  be  interrupted.  He  was  vitally 
interested  in  the  intensity  of  flames  beneath  a  steam  boiler, 
or  within  a  cupola  furnace  such  as  ironmakers  employ.  In 
measuring  their  extreme  temperatures,  he  discarded,  as 
worthless,  the  clay  measures  of  Wedgewood,  and  devised 
a  thermometer  which  registered  the  degree  to  which  the  heat 
expanded  its  confined  gas.  This  method,  in  which  he  was 
once  again  pioneer,  survives  as  one  of  the  most  trust- 
worthy ever  invented.  But  these  and  other  creations  were 
but  the  by-play  of  a  mind  intent  on  a  supreme  task,  that 
of  supplanting  the  steam  engine  as  a  prime-mover. 

After  he  came  to  the  United  States,  in  1839,  Ericsson 
continued  his  experiments  with  hot  air  as  a  motor,  building 
eight  caloric  engines  between  1840  and  1850.  He  gradu- 
ally enlarged  their  dimensions,  until  a  cylinder  of  30  inches 
diameter  succeeded  to  the  1 4-inch  cylinder  of  his  first  Amer- 
ican design.  All  these  engines  had,  as  regenerators,  metal 
chests  with  wire  meshes  in  which  the  outgoing  air  left 
much  heat  for  the  incoming  air  to  absorb.  The  difference 


238          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

in  temperature  between  the  incoming  and  outgoing  streams 
was  never  less  than  350°  Fahrenheit.  In  1851  he  designed 
a  ninth  engine,  to  cost  $17,000,  having  a  two-foot  stroke 
and  two  compressing  cylinders  of  four  feet  diameter.  Its 
two  regenerators  contained  twenty-seven  million  cells,  and 
Ericsson  estimated  that  but  eleven  ounces  of  coal  were 
burned  in  producing  one  horse-power  for  an  hour.  If  this 
estimate  was  correct,  Ericsson's  engine  surpassed  any  feat 
to-day  possible  to  the  best  steam  engines  which,  with 
multiple  expansion,  and  the  most  elaborate  auxiliaries  for 
economy,  never  burn  less  than  one  pound  of  coal  as  against 
his  eleven  ounces.  If  his  figures  were  wrong,  Ericsson  im- 
movably held  them  to  be  right.  How  this  led  to  the  one 
great  disaster  of  his  professional  career  is  told  by  him  in  his 
Contributions  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition  at  Philadelphia, 
in  1876: 

"  The  regularity  of  action  and  perfect  working  of  every 
part  of  the  thirty-inch  engine  in  1851,  and,  above  all,  its  ap- 
parent great  economy  of  fuel,  inclined  some  enterprising 
merchants  of  New  York,  in  the  latter  part  of  1851,  to  accept 
my  proposition  to  construct  a  ship  for  navigating  the  ocean, 
propelled  by  paddle-wheels  actuated  by  the  caloric  engine. 
This  work  was  commenced  forthwith,  and  pushed  with 
such  vigor  that  within  nine  months  from  commencing  the 
construction  of  the  machinery,  and  within  seven  months  of 
the  laying  of  the  keel,  the  paddle-wheels  of  the  caloric  ship 
Ericsson  turned  around  in  the  dock.  In  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  engines  consisted  of  four  working  cylinders  of  168 
inches  diameter,  6  feet  stroke,  and  4  air-compressing  cylin- 
ders of  137  inches  diameter  and  6  feet  stroke,  it  may  be 
claimed  that  in  point  of  magnitude  and  rapidity  of  con- 
struction, the  motive  machinery  of  the  caloric  ship  stands 
unrivaled  in  the  annals  of  marine  engineering." 

To  build  this  vessel  required  about  half  a  million  dol- 
lars, her  engines  costing  $130,000.  Her  length  was  260 
feet,  her  breadth  40  feet,  her  draught  17  feet,  with  a  ton- 


JOHN  ERICSSON  239 

nage  of  nearly  2,200.  The  keel  was  laid  in  April,  1852, 
five  months  later  she  was  launched,  and  started  on  her  trial 
trip  January  5,  1853.  Six  weeks  afterward,  on  February 
16,  1853,  she  left  New  York  for  Washington,  arriving  there 
safely,  notwithstanding  a  stormy  passage.  Her  four  work- 
ing cylinders,  each  14  feet  wide,  were  bestowed  in  pairs 
midway  of  the  vessel,  two  forward  and  two  aft.  Instead 
of  resting  on  the  keelsons,  in  the  usual  manner,  they  were 
suspended,  like  huge  camp  kettles,  over  the  furnace  fires. 
Above  the  working  cylinders  were  four  supply  cylinders,  or 
single-acting  pumps,  of  137  inches  in  diameter.  Eight 
piston-rods,  each  14  feet  long,  connected  the  mammoth 
pistons  of  each  set  of  cylinders,  and  these  pistons  had  a 
total  capacity  of  43  cubic  feet.  Ericsson  expected  to  reach 
a  pressure  of  12  pounds  to  the  square  inch  with  his  engine 
and  calculated  that  this  would  give  a  speed  of  ten  or  even 
twelve  miles  an  hour;  but  it  was  found  impossible  to  ex- 
ceed eight  miles.  This  gait,  slow  as  it  was,  fulfilled  his 
promise,  and  a  failure  in  speed  would  not  have  condemned 
his  vessel  if  a  quicker  pace  seemed  feasible  when  his  design 
received  revision. 

The  Ericsson  returned  to  New  York,  and  was  in  many 
details  much  improved.  Blowers  were  added  to  force  the 
draft,  and  make  good  a  deficient  area  of  grate  surface.  But 
out  of  a  fair  sky  fell  a  thunderbolt.  During  a  trip  on  April 
27,  1854,  in  New  York  Bay,  the  Ericsson  was  struck  by.  a 
sudden  squall  and  sank.  This  was  her  designer's  account 
of  the  wreck,  in  a  letter  to  his  friend,  Mr.  Sargent: 

"  At  the  very  moment  of  success — of  brilliant  success — 
Fate  has  dealt  me  the  severest  blow  I  ever  received.  We 
yesterday  went  out  on  a  private  preparatory  trial  of  the 
caloric  ship,  during  which,  all  our  anticipations  were 
realized.  We  attained  a  speed  of  from  twelve  to  thirteen 
turns  of  our  paddle-wheels,  equal  to  fully  eleven  miles  an 
hour,  without  putting  forth  anything  like  our  maximum 


240         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

power.  All  went  magnificently  until  within  a  mile  or  two 
of  the  city  (on  our  return  from  Sandy  Hook),  when  our 
beautiful  ship  was  struck  by  a  terrific  tornado  on  our  lar- 
board quarter,  careening  the  hull  so  far  as  to  put  com- 
pletely under  water  the  lower  starboard,  which,  unfor- 
tunately, the  men  on  the  freight  deck  had  opened  to  clear 
out  some  rubbish,  the  day  being  very  fine.  The  men,  so  far 
as  we  could  learn,  became  terrified  and  ran  on  deck  without 
closing  the  ports,  and  the  hold  filled  so  rapidly  as  to  sink 
the  ship  in  a  few  minutes.  I  need  not  tell  you  what  my 
feelings  were  as  I  watched  the  destructive  element  entering 
the  fireplaces  of  the  engines,  and  as  the  noble  fabric,  yielding 
under  my  feet,  disappeared  inch  by  inch.  A  more  sudden 
transition  from  gladness  and  exultation  to  disappointment 
and  regret  is  scarcely  on  record.  Two  years  of  anxious  la- 
bor had  been  brought  to  a  successful  close,  the  finest  and 
strongest  ship,  perhaps,  ever  built  was  gliding  on  the  placid 
surface,  of  the  finest  harbor  in  the  world,  and  within  a  few 
cable-lengths  of  her  anchorage ;  yet,  with  such  solid  grounds 
for  exultation,  and  with  such  perfect  security  from  danger, 
a  freak  of  the  elements  effected  utter  annihilation  in  the 
space  of  a  few  minutes." 

The  unfortunate  ship  was  lifted  to  the  surface:  it  was 
decided  to  convert  her  into  a  steamer,  as  her  air  engines 
had  developed  but  300  horse-power.  It  had  been  proved, 
beyond  dispute,  that  in  very  large  dimensions,  such  as  those 
of  the  Ericsson,  air  cannot  compete  with  steam  as  a  motive 
power.  Bulk  and  weight,  with  all  the  inflexibility  of  arith- 
metic, oppose  the  project.  The  Ericsson,  as  a  steamer,  in 
1858  bore  the  remains  of  ex-President  James  Monroe  from 
New  York  to  Richmond,  Virginia,  with  the  Seventh  Regi- 
ment as  an  escort.  During  the  Civil  War  she  served  as  a 
transport.  At  last  she  was  converted  into  a  sailer,  and 
carried  coals  on  the  Pacific  Ocean  under  the  Union  Jack. 
All  his  life  afterward,  Ericsson  maintained  that  his  caloric 
.  ship  was  his  masterpiece,  both  in  design  and  construction. 
Its  failure  left  him  still  believing  that  its  motor,  in  prin- 
ciple, was  the  best  ever  built.  In  January,  1855,  nine 


JOHN  ERICSSON  241 

months  after  the  Ericsson  foundered,  he  wrote  to  his  busi- 
ness associates,  Mr.  Stoughton,  Mr.  Tyler,  and  Mr.  Blood- 
good  : 

".  .  .  On  the  principle  of  the  improved  caloric  engine, 
more  motive  power  may  be  obtained  from  a  mass  of  metallic 
wires  of  two  feet  cube  than  from  a  whole  mountain  of 
coal,  as  applied  in  the  present  steam  engine.  Every  experi- 
mental trial  made  has  more  than  realized  my  anticipations  as 
regards  the  rapidity  and  certainty  of  depositing  and  return- 
ing the  caloric  on  this  remarkable  system.  The  practical 
application  alone  has  presented  difficulties.  ...  In  the 
meantime  1  find  myself  on  the  verge  of  ruin.  I  must  do 
something  to  obtain  bread,  and  vindicate  to  some  extent  my 
assumed  position  as  the  opponent  of  steam.  Accordingly  I 
have  determined  to  return  to  my  original  caloric  engine. 
The  plan  is  less  brilliant — less  startling — but  as  it  proved 
to  yield  power  practically  twenty  years  ago,  so  will  it 
again.  At  any  rate,  it  cannot  fail  to  be  sufficiently  useful 
to  save  its  author  from  starving.  .  .  ." 

A  thousand  of  these  caloric  engines  were  sold  in  two 
years,  the  beginning  of  a  demand  which  ,for  a  long  period 
steadily  widened.  These  Ericsson  engines  were  yoked  to 
printing  presses,  hoisting  gear  for  warehouses,  docks,  and 
ships;  they  were  busy  in  mines  and  mills;  they  were  em- 
ployed for  pumping,  for  irrigation,  and  for  the  water  supply 
of  villages ;  many  were  applied  on  farms  to  threshing,  on 
plantations  to  ginning  and  other  tasks.  Of  late  years  air 
engines  have  suffered  severely  from  the  competition  of 
lighter  and  more  forceful  engines  burning  gas  or  gasoline, 
as  well  as  from  the  rivalry  of  electric  motors. 

While  Ericsson  overrated  the  regenerator,  its  worth  was, 
nevertheless,  substantial.  In  1838  he  sought  to  link  it  to 
the  steam  engine,  but  success  eluded  him.  Now,  thoroughly 
familiar  with  steam  engines  of  new  types,  he  had  better  for- 
tune. His  plan  was  to  send  exhaust  steam  through  tubing, 
on  the  other  side  of  which  ran  water  on  its  way  to  the 


242          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

boiler.  This  feed-water  heater,  in  modern  forms,  is  always 
part  of  a  steam  engine  of  the  best  class.  The  exhausts 
from  heat  engines  form  much  the  largest  item  of  loss; 
their  utilization,  especially  to  heighten  the  efficiency 
of  engines  themselves,  still  offers  a  promising  field  to 
ingenuity. 

For  the  careful  execution  of  his  designs,  and  for  secur- 
ing a  wide  and  growing  market,  Ericsson  was  indebted  to 
Cornelius  H.  Delamater,  the  engine  builder,  and  for  many 
years  owner  of  the  Phcenix  Foundry  in  New  York.  With 
him  the  inventor  maintained  the  longest  and  most  intimate 
of  his  friendships.  Mr.  Delamater  was  a  clerk  in  the 
Phcenix  Foundry  when  the  engines  for  the  Princeton  were 
under  construction  in  1842.  He  had  the  utmost  confidence 
in  Ericsson's  talents  and  integrity.  To  be  sure,  Ericsson's 
temper  was  at  times  most  provoking;  and  yet,  after  every 
storm,  the  sunshine  of  his  good  will  emerged  all  the  warmer 
for  a  ray  of  repentance. 

Another  intimate  friend  of  Ericsson's  was  Professor 
James  J.  Mapes,  an  engineer  holding  high  rank  as  an  ex- 
pert in  patent  cases.  Whenever  Ericsson's  ring  was  heard 
at  their  door,  the  Mapes  children  sprang  to  greet  him,  for 
his  kindness  and  playfulness  had  wholly  won  their  hearts. 
After  a  romp  with  the  youngsters  the  inventor  would  dis- 
cuss with  the  professor  deep  questions  in  physics  and  chem- 
istry, soon  reaching  the  horizons  where  inference  leaps 
into  conjecture.  In  his  big  and  busy  brain  the  great 
Swedish  engineer  had  many  compartments,  and  their  con- 
tents were  highly  contrasted.  Often  at  the  fireside  of  his 
friend  Mapes,  he  would  glide  from  a  page  of  Laplace's 
"  Mechanism  of  the  Heavens,"  or  a  theorem  in  Newton's 
"  Principia,"  to  recalling  a  Swedish  ballad  of  his  youth. 
His  biographer,  after  Ericsson's  death,  found  among  his 
dusty  diagrams  and  calculations  a  list  of  songs  which  in- 
cluded "  Who  are  you,  my  girl  ? ",  "  It  is  so  sweet  in 


JOHN  ERICSSON  243 

Spring,"  and  "  Oh,  Robert,  cruel  is  our  parting."  This 
man,  who,  when  more  than  sixty  years  of  age,  would  stand 
on  his  head  for  the  amusement  of  the  Mapes  children,  was  a 
dreaded  and  gusty  autocrat  in  foundries  and  engine  sheds. 
At  the  drafting-table  no  man  excelled  him  in  celerity  and 
accuracy.  Yet,  John  Ericsson  was,  after  all,  a  human 
being,  and,  therefore,  liable  to  err,  and  to  suffer  lapses  of 
memory,  although  at  extremely  long  intervals.  His  own 
expertness  made  him  an  exacting  master;  and  he  required 
in  execution  a  rigid  adherence  to  every  detail  in  his  draw- 
ings. One  day  his  assistants  were  filled  with  glee:  they 
found  that  "  the  old  man  "  had  omitted  a  vent-hole  in  a 
drawing  otherwise  complete.  In  his  life  by  Colonel  Church 
appears  this  characteristic  story: 

"  Charles  Nelson,  at  one  time  draftsman  in  the  Novelty 
Works  in  this  city,  had  charge  of  the  engines  of  the  Co- 
lumbia, designed  by  Captain  Ericsson,  and  when  the  en- 
gines were  finished  it  was  customary  in  those  days  to  get 
the  length  of  the  piston-rod  from  the  engine  itself,  so  that 
there  would  be  no  mistake  in  cutting  the  key-way  on  the 
piston-rod.  Nelson  was  down  in  the  Columbia's  cylinder 
with  a  baton  about  fourteen  feet  long,  when  Ericsson  came 
on  board  and  stood  right  over  him.  He  roared  out :  '  What 
are  you  doing  there,  sir  ?  ' 

1 '  Getting  the  length  of  the  piston-rod,  Captain  Erics- 
son/ 

"  '  Is  it  not  on  the  drawing,  sir  ?  ' 
'  Yes,  sir.' 

"  '  Then  why  do  you  come  here  with  sticks,  sir  ?  Go  and 
get  the  length  from  the  drawing,  sir.  I  do  not  want  you  to 
bring  sticks  when  the  drawing  gives  the  size.'  " 

Charles  Bernard,  an  old  New  York  engineer,  used  to  tell 
a  similar  story  of  Ericsson's  accuracy.  John  Mars  was 
putting  in  the  engines  of  the  Quinnebaug,  and  one  of  the  de- 
tails was  a  small  connection  as  crooked  as  a  dog's  hind  leg. 
Mars  tried  to  get  it  into  its  place  for  a  long  time,  but  failed, 


244         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

and  finally  went  to  Ericsson  and  told  him  the  rod  could  not 
be  got  in.     Ericsson  said : 

"  Is  it  right  by  the  drawing?"  • 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Mars. 
"  Then  it  will  go  in,"  said  Ericsson ;  and  when  Mars  tried 
it  again  it  did  go  in. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  in  April,  1861,  Erics- 
son was  fifty-eight  years  of  age,  yet  enjoying  all  the  vigor 
usual  at  forty.  Twelve  to  fourteen  hours  a  day,  standing 
at  his  table,  he  drew  plans  .for  machinery  and  engines.  An 
occasional  visit  to  a  foundry  or  a  machine  shop,  at  rare  in- 
tervals a  call  upon  Professor  Mapes  or  Mr.  E.  W. 
Stoughton,  were  the  only  breaks  in  his  toil.  The  attack  on 
Fort  Sumter,  and  the  events  which  quickly  followed,  stirred 
him  profoundly:  as  in  many  another  case,  the  division  of 
camps  had  converted  a  friend  into  a  foe.  In  former  days 
at  Washington,  a  Representative  from  Florida,  the  Hon. 
Stephen  R.  Mallory,  had  been  a  champion  of  his  claims  as 
designer  of  the  Princeton,  and  had  become  thoroughly 
aware  of  his  extraordinary  powers.  Mr.  Mallory  was  now 
the  virtual  head  of  the  Confederate  Navy:  at  his  instance 
the  frigate  Merrimac,  which  had  been  burned  and  sunk  in 
Norfolk  Harbor,  was  lifted  and  repaired,  to  be  clad  with 
iron  armor  and  work  ruin  to  Union  warships.  With  but 
one  establishment  in  the  South  capable  of  furnishing  armor, 
the  Tredegar  Foundry  at  Richmond,  work  was  slow  on  the 
Virginia,  as  the  frigate  was  now  named.  Her  progress 
toward  completion  was,  from  day  to  day,  telegraphed  to 
the  New  York  press,  and  this  impelled  Ericsson  to  action. 
On  August  29,  1861,  he  wrote  to  President  Lincoln,  offering 
plans  of  the  Monitor,  plans  so  simple  that  they  could  be  ex- 
ecuted within  ten  weeks  from  the  day  they  were  taken  in 
hand.  Ericsson  was  invited  to  lay  these  plans  before  the 
Navy  Department.  Accordingly  he  reported  himself  in 


JOHN  ERICSSON  245 

Washington  on  September  14,  1861.  Sixteen  years  after- 
ward, in  a  letter  to  Captain  E.  P.  Dorr,  of  Buffalo,  he  nar- 
rated his  reception: 

".  .  .  On  entering  the  room  occupied  by  the  Board  over 
which  Commodore  Smith  presided,  I  was  very  coldly  re- 
ceived, and  learned  to  my  surprise  that  the  Board  had  actu- 
ally rejected  my  Monitor  plan,  presented  by  Mr.  Bushnell 
(afterward  his  partner  in  her  construction).  Indignant,  my 
first  resolve  was  to  withdraw,  but  a  second  thought 
prompted  me  to  ask  why  the  plan  was  rejected.  Com- 
modore Smith  at  once  made  an  explanation  that  the  vessel 
lacked  stability.  My  blood  being  well  up,  I  finished  my 
demonstration  by  thus  addressing  the  Board : 

"  '  Gentlemen,  after  what  I  have  said,  I  deem  it  your 
duty  to  the  country  before  I  leave  the  room  to  give  me  an 
order  to  build  the  vessel.' 

"  I  was  asked  to  call  again  at  one  o'clock.  Commodore 
Paulding  invited  me  into  his  room,  and  in  a  very  cordial 
manner  asked  me  to  report  my  explanation  about  the  stabil- 
ity of  the  vessel.  I  complied,  having  in  the  meantime 
drawn  a  diagram  presenting  the  question  in  a  very  simple 
form.  My  explanation  lasted  about  twenty  minutes,  at  the 
end  of  which  the  frank  and  generous  sailor  said : 

" '  Sir,  I  have  learned  more  about  the  stability  of  a  ves- 
sel from  what  you  have  said  than  I  ever  knew  before/ 

"  Commodore  Smith  then  desired  me  to  call  again  later  in 
the  day.  On  my  appearance  I  was  asked  to  step  into  Secre- 
tary Welles's  room,  who  briefly  told  me  that  the  com- 
modores had  reported  favorably,  and  that,  accordingly,  he 
would  have  the  contract  drawn  up  and  sent  after  me  to  New 
York,  desiring  me  in  the  meantime  to  proceed  with  the  work. 
I  returned  at  once,  and  before  the  contract  was  completed 
the  keel-plate  of  the  intended  vessel  had  already  passed 
through  the  rollers  of  the  mill.  .  .  ." 

Why  the  Monitor  was  so  named,  her  designer  narrates 
in  his  "  Contributions  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition " : 

"  The  Navy  Department  at  Washington  having,  shortly 
before  the  launch,  requested  me  to  suggest  an  appropriate 


246         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

name  for  the  impregnable  tttrreted  steam-battery,  I  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
saying :  '  The  impregnable  and  aggressive  character  of  this 
structure  will  admonish  the  leaders  of  the  Southern  Re- 
bellion that  the  batteries  on  the  banks  of  their  rivers  will 
no  longer  present  barriers  to  the  entrance  of  the  Union 
forces.  The  iron-clad  intruder  will  thus  prove  a  severe 
monitor  to  those  leaders.  But  there  are  other  leaders  who 
will  also  be  startled  and  admonished  by  the  booming  of  the 
guns  from  the  impregnable  iron  turret.  Downing  Street 
will  hardly  view  with  indifference  this  last  Yankee  notion, 
this  monitor.  To  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  the  new  craft 
will  be  a  monitor,  suggesting  doubts  as  to  the  propriety  of 
completing  those  four  steel  ships  at  three  and  a  half  millions 
apiece.  On  these  and  many  similar  grounds  I  propose  to 
name  the  new  battery  Monitor.' 

"  It  will  be  recollected  that  this  letter  was  regarded  in 
England  as  possessing  political  significance,  several  mem- 
bers of  Parliament  having  called  for  its  reading  in  the  House 
of  Commons  when  the  news  of  the  result  of  the  battle  be- 
tween the  Monitor  and  the  Merrimac  appeared  in  the  Times. 
Unquestionably  the  advent  of  the  Monitor  materially  coun- 
teracted the  pressure  which  the  French  Emperor  brought  to 
bear  on  the  British  Ministry  at  the  time,  in  favor  of  the 

Southern  States." 

> 

On  October  25,  1861,  the  keel  of  the  Monitor  was  laid; 
she  was  launched  January  30,  1862,  and  practically  com- 
pleted by  February  15.  Her  extreme  length  was  172  feet, 
her  breadth  41^  feet,  with  11^2  feet  as  her  depth  of  hold; 
she  drew  10^2  feet  of  water.  Her  turret  was  9  feet  in 
diameter  and  8  inches  thick;  her  side  armor  was  5  inches 
thick,  her  deck  plating  was  one  inch  thick.  Her  two  pro- 
pellers were  each  9  feet  in  diameter;  her  steam  cylinder 
was  36  inches  in  diameter,  with  a  stroke  of  26  inches.  She 
was  a  vessel  of  776  tons.  Her  design  was  the  slowly 
ripened  fruit  of  a  lifetime  varied  in  engineering  experience, 
rich  in  bold  and  original  thought.  Ericsson  knew  every 
line  of  the  working  plans  carried  out  on  the  Gota  Canal ;  he 


JOHN  ERICSSON 


247 


had  studied  artillery  and  its  allied  problems  in  the  camps 
of  Jemtland;  for  commerce  and  for  war,  he  had  designed 
ship  after  ship  from  keel  to  masthead. 

For  the  daring  plan  of  the  Monitor  he  declared  his  in- 


Side  Elevation 


Deck  Plan 


Transverse  Section  of  Hull  and  Turret 

THE  "MONITOR" 
Designed  by  John  Ericsson.     Built  at  New  York,  1861. 

debtedness  to  his  observation  of  rafted  timber  on  Swedish 
lakes.  In  a  storm  he  had  seen  the  raftsman  in  his  elevated 
cabin  subjected  to  but  little  motion,  while  waves  were  freely 


248          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

breaking  over  the  logs  around  and  beneath  him.  Above  and 
beyond  all  other  qualifications,  Ericsson  was  a  man  to  whom 
the  rules  of  past  practice  were  servants  and  not  masters. 
He  was  convinced  that  all  engineering  feats  thus  far  ac- 
complished were  trifles  as  compared  with  victories  near  at 
hand.  In  the  Monitor  he  gave  war  a  wholly  new  and  ter- 
rible weapon.  She  was  an  impregnable  floating  battery, 
with  guns  of  the  largest  caliber  then  produced,  with  a  hull 
shotproof  from  stem  to  stern,  and  with  her  rudder  and 
screws  protected  from  an  enemy's  fire  by  an  overhang  of 
13  feet.  In  order  to  navigate  the  shallow  waters  of  the 
Southern  States,  her  draught  was  but  eleven  feet,  demand- 
ing a  sunken  hull  from  the  impossibility  of  carrying  the 
weight  required  to  protect  a  high-sided  vessel.  Her  cylin- 
drical turret,  revolving  on  a  vertical  axis,  made  feasible  an 
all-around  fire  while  the  vessel  remained  stationary.  Tur- 
rets, modified  from  Ericsson's  design,  appear  in  every  mod- 
ern man-of-war.  The  Monitor  cost  her  builder  $195,142.60, 
yielding  a  net  profit  of  $79,857.40.  Of  this  Ericsson's 
share  was  one-fourth,  $19,964.35,  plus  $1,000  for  engineer- 
ing services.  Happily  for  Ericsson  and  for  the  Union,  the 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Gustavus  Vasa  Fox,  was  a 
man  of  ability  and  courage,  who  had  served  fourteen  years 
in  the  Navy  when  appointed  Assistant  to  Secretary  Welles, 
who  used  his  technical  knowledge  with  daily  advantage. 
At  first  Mr.  Fox  dissented  from  Ericsson's  plans;  he  soon 
became  their  stanch  supporter. 

When  the  Monitor  was  ready  for  duty,  it  was  intended  to 
despatch  her  to  join  Farragut's  expedition  against  New  Or-- 
leans.  News  of  the  approaching  completion  of  the  Virginia 
at  Norfolk  changed  this  program :  the  Monitor  was  ordered 
to  proceed  to  Hampton  Roads  on  the  earliest  date  possible. 
She  left  New  York  on  the  afternoon  of  March  6,  1862,  in 
tow  of  a  tug,  and  accompanied  by  two  steamers,  the  Curri- 
tuck  and  the  Sachem.  For  twenty-four  hours  in  a  smooth 


JOHN  ERICSSON  249 

sea,  the  Monitor  moved  evenly  and  comfortably.  Then, 
with  a  rising  wind,  the  sea  swept  her  deck,  entered  through 
the  hawsepipes,  and  choked  her  draft.  These  mishaps, 
and  others  less  serious,  were  in  part  due  to  errors  in  con- 
struction easily  remedied,  and  to  lack  of  experience  in 
handling  so  novel  a  craft.  There  was  only  one  man  on 
board  who  thoroughly  understood  the  build  of  the  Monitor. 
This  was  Chief  Engineer  Alban  C.  Stimers,  the  naval  in- 
spector of  ironclads,  who  was  a  passenger.  Years  before, 
he  had  been  chief  engineer  of  the  Merrimac.  But  for  his 
skill  and  presence  of  mind,  the  maiden  voyage  of  the  Moni- 
tor might  have  ended  in  disaster.  From  her  cabin  he  wrote 
to  Ericsson  on  March  9,  1862 : 

"  After  a  stormy  passage  which  proved  us  to  be  the 
finest  seaboat  I  was  ever  in,  we  fought  the  Merrimac  for 
more  than  three  hours  this  forenoon,  and  sent  her  back  to 
Norfolk  in  a  sinking  condition.  Ironclad  against  ironclad, 
we  manoeuvered  about  the  bay  here,  and  went  at  each  other 
with  mutual  fairness.  I  consider  that  both  ships  were  well 
fought.  We  were  struck  twenty-two  times,  pilot  house 
twice,  turret  nine  times,  deck  three  times,  sides  eight  times. 
The  only  vulnerable  point  was  the  pilot-house  (perched 
above  the  turret).  One  of  your  great  logs,  nine  by  twelve 
inches  thick,  is  almost  broken  in  two.  The  Merrimac  tried 
to  run  us  down  and  sink  us  as  she  did  the  Cumberland  yes- 
terday, but  she  got  the  worst  of  it.  Her  horn  passed  over 
our  deck,  and  our  sharp  upper-edged  rail  cut  through  the 
light  iron  shoe  upon  her  stem  and  well  into  her  oak.  She 
will  not  try  that  again.  She  gave  us  a  tremendous  thump, 
but  did  not  injure  us  in  the  least,  we  were  just  able  to  find 
the  point  of  contact.  The  turret  is  a  splendid  structure ;  I 
don't  think  much  of  the  shield,  but  the  pendulums  are  fine 
things,  though  I  cannot  tell  you  how  they  would  stand  the 
shot,  as  they  were  not  hit. 

"  You  were  correct  in  your  estimate  of  the  effect  of  shot 
upon  the  man  inside  of  the  turret  when  it  struck  near  him. 
Three  men  were  knocked  down,  of  whom  I  was  one.  The 
other  two  had  to  be  carried  below,  but  I  was  not  disabled 


250         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

at  all,  and  the  others  recovered  before  the  battle  was  over. 
Captain  Worden  stationed  himself  at  the  pilot-house,  Greene 
fired  the  guns,  and  I  turned  the  turret  until  the  Captain  was 
disabled,  and  was  relieved  by  Greene,  when  I  managed  the 
turret  myself,  Master  Stoddard  having  been  one  of  the  two 
stunned  men. 

"  Captain  Ericsson,  I  congratulate  you  upon  your  great 
success;  thousands  here  this  day  bless  you.  I  have  heard 
whole  crews  cheer  you ;  every  man  feels  that  you  have  saved 
this  place  to  the  nation  by  furnishing  us  with  the  means  to 
whip  an  ironclad  frigate  that  was,  until  our  arrival,  hav- 
ing it  all  her  own  way  with  our  most  powerful  vessel." 

This  narrative  from  inside  may  be  supplemented  by  a 
recital  from  outside,  by  a  Confederate  soldier,  who,  from  a 
safe  position,  saw  the  fight.*  He  declares  that  had  the 
Monitor  concentrated  her  fire  upon  the  water-line  of  the 
Merrimac,  she  would  have  been  pierced  as  if  paper.  At  a 
later  day  it  was  proved  that  the  guns  of  the  Monitor  could 
safely  bear  charges  of  powder  much  heavier  than  those  fired 
during  her  famous  battle.  In  justice  to  her  officers  it  should 
be  remembered  that  they  were  forced  to  fight  immediately 
upon  arriving  in  Hampton  Roads,  after  a  fatiguing  voyage, 
under  singularly  trying  conditions,  and  with  a  vessel  whose 
idiosyncrasies  they  had  no  time  to  learn.  "  All  the  men," 
wrote  her  chief  engineer,  Isaac  Newton,  "  were  nearly  ex- 
hausted. I,  for  one,  was  sick  on  my  back,  with  little  hope 
of  being  up  in  a  week,  but  a  short  time  before  the  action. 
The  Merrimac  was  entirely  in  our  power  when  she  hauled 
off,  but  orders  were  imperative  to  act  on  the  defensive." 
The  commander  of  the  Merrimac,  Catesby  Jones,  testified 
before  a  naval  court  that  the  Monitor  ought  to  have  sunk 
his  vessel  in  fifteen  minutes.  Alban  C.  Stimers  met  Mr. 
Jones,  on  the  last  of  many  occasions,  in  1872.  Mr.  Jones 
remarked  :  "  The  war  has  been  over  a  good  while  now,  and  I 
think  there  can  be  no  harm  in  saying  to  you  that,  if  you  had 

^Southern  Historical  Society  Papers,  vol.  ix;  21. 


JOHN  ERICSSON  251 

hit  us  twice  more  as  well  as  you  did  the  last  two  shots  you 
fired,  you  would  have  sunk  us." 

While  the  contest  in  Hampton  Roads  pointed  to  the 
necessity  of  redesigning  the  naval  armaments  of  the  world, 
it  failed  to  show  all  that  a  monitor  might  do.  When  Erics- 
son's vessel  left  his  hands,  it  was  beyond  his  control.  He 
had  created  an  impregnable  floating  battery,  carrying  guns 
powerful  enough  to  destroy  any  of  the  enemy's  ships:  he 
could  do  no  more.  The  wave  of  rejoicing  which  overswept 
the  North  was  due  less  to  the  achievement  of  the  Monitor, 
fought  as  she  was,  than  to  confidence  that  the  Government 
had  at  least  one  vessel  that  could  not  be  sunk  by  the  Merri- 
mac;  and  what  was  to  prevent  the  rapid  building  of  a  fleet 
modeled  on  the  Monitor?  Happily  the  Merrimac  was  fated 
to  give  the  North  no  further  trouble.  A  few  weeks  after 
her  most  famous  battle,  and  without  firing  another  shot,  she 
sank  in  Chesapeake  Bay.  A  like  fate  befell  the  Monitor, 
which  foundered  in  a  gale  near  Cape  Hatteras,  on  Decem- 
ber 31,  1862. 

Following  the  success  of  the  Monitor,  there  flowed  upon 
her  designer  a  great  tide  of  congratulation  and  applause. 
From  State  Legislatures,  from  Chambers  of  Commerce 
and  Boards  of  Trade,  from  public  meetings  convened  for  the 
purpose,  thanks  and  laudations  were  poured  upon  the  Moni- 
tor; upon  Ericsson,  her  creator;  Worden,  her  commander; 
Greene,  her  executive  officer;  Newton,  her  chief  engineer; 
and  upon  Stimers,  the  engineer  appointed  to  accompany  and 
report  upon  her,  who  worked  her  turret.  President  Lin- 
coln, members  of  his  Cabinet,  many  of  the  diplomatic  corps, 
officers  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  ladies,  too,  crowded  to 
see  the  new  ship  of  war,  and  to  view  its  scene  of  conflict 
in  Hampton  Roads.  On  March  28,  1862,  Congress  passed  a 
joint  resolution  acknowledging  the  enterprise,  skill,  energy, 
and  foresight  of  Captain  John  Ericsson,  displayed  in  his 
construction  of  the  Monitor,  which  arrested  the  destruction 


252          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

then  proceeding  by  the  enemy's  ironclad  steamers,  seem- 
ingly irresistible  by  any  other  means  at  command,  according 
him  thanks  for  his  great  services  to  the  nation. 

After  disabling  the  Merrimac,  the  Monitor  joined  the 
ironclad  Galena  and  several  wooden  vessels  in  a  demonstra- 
tion against  Richmond.  "  This,"  says  Professor  Soley, 
"  was  one  of  the  boldest  and  best  conducted  operations  of 
the  war.  Had  Commander  Rodgers  been  supported  by  a 
few  brigades,  landed  at  City  Point  or  above  on  the  south 
side,  Richmond  would  have  been  evacuated.  The  Virginia's 
crew  alone  barred  the  way  to  Richmond ;  otherwise  the  ob- 
structions would  not  have  prevented  his  steaming  up  to  the 
city,  which  would  have  been  as  much  at  his  mercy  as  was 
New  Orleans  before  the  fleet  of  Farragut."  * 

Admiral  Farragut,  by  the  way,  was  at  first  opposed  to 
Ericsson's  great  invention.  After  the  battle  of  Mobile 
Bay  he  changed  his  mind.  Referring  to  that  contest,  Erics- 
son said :  "  Admiral  Farragut  now  admits  that  a  single 
monitor  can  sink  a  whole  fleet  of  wooden  vessels.  He  was 
convinced  after  seeing  his  own  gun-deck  covered  with  blood 
and  mangled  bodies  by  the  fire  from  the  ram,  while  on  board 
the  turret-vessels  not  so  much  blood  was  shed  as  a  mosquito 
would  draw." 

Yet  so  fair-minded  was  Ericsson,  so  compelling  his  sense 
of  right,  that  in  1875  he  wrote  to  an  inquirer :  "  In  reply  to 
your  kind  letter  asking  for  a  copy  of  acknowledgments  re- 
ceived complimentary  to  what  you  are  pleased  to  call  my 
'  great  work/  I  beg  to  state  that  nothing  could  induce  me 
to  lay  before  the  world  the  approving  opinions  of  the  moni- 
tor system  without  also  presenting  the  adverse  criticism  of 
my  work  of  which  learned  as  well  as  skilful,  practical  men 
have  written  in  great  numbers." 

Critics  of  the  monitors  pointed  to  disasters  which  had 
overtaken  several  of  them,  disasters  to  which  warships  of 

*  "Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War,"  p.  761. 


JOHN  ERICSSON  253 

ordinary  models  would  not  be  exposed.  In  comment,  Erics- 
son wrote  to  his  friend  John  Bourne,  the  eminent  English 
engineer,  on  November  3,  1863 : 

"  The  monitors  have  not  only  proved  sea  boats,  but  they 
are  lifeboats  on  a  large  scale,  which  cannot  perish  in  any 
hurricane  or  raging  sea,  provided  there  is  water  under  their 
bottoms  and  their  deck  openings  are  properly  closed.  The 
sinking  of  the  original  Monitor  was  caused  by  an  inexperi- 
enced commander  raising  her  turret  before  going  to  sea, 
and  then  putting  oakum  under  its  base.  The  turret,  on  be- 
ing let  down,  rested  on  a  few  thick  lumps,  the  sea  washing 
out  the  rest  and  producing  a  leak  of  some  fifty  feet  in  ex- 
tent, admitting  more  water  than  the  pumps  could  take  away. 
But  the  vessel  did  not  go  down  in  an  instant,  as  reported, 
for  it  took  full  four  hours  before  the  stream  of  water  un- 
der the  turret  overpowered  the  pumps.  The  monitor  Wee- 
hawken  went  down  at  anchor  in  Charleston  harbor  during 
a  gale,  the  forward  deck-hatch  having  been  left  open  and 
remaining  so  for  fifteen  minutes,  while  the  sea  made  a  clean 
breach  over  the  vessel.  We  have  positive  evidence  that 
both  the  seams  and  rivets  of  that  vessel  remained  sound. 

"  Ordinary  vessels  roll  because  the  wave  on  the  weather 
side,  impeded  by  the  hull,  rises  to  a  greater  altitude  than 
on  the  opposite  side.  In  the  case  of  the  Monitor  the  wave 
can  only  rise  sixteen  inches,  after  which  it  mounts  the  deck, 
and  by  force  of  gravity  bears  down  the  hull  and  checks  the 
tendency  to  roll.  The  projecting  side  armor  also  assists 
powerfully  in  preventing  rolling.  The  pitching,  from  the 
same  cause,  is  less  in  monitors  than  in  other  vessels.  As  to 
ventilation,  old  sailors  who  have  been  in  these  vessels  night 
and  day  for  two  years  have  assured  me  that  no  other  ves- 
sels of  war  can  compare  with  them.  It  must  be  so,  since 
the  air  before  entering  the  boiler-room  sweeps  through  the 
quarters.  To  assume  that  the  means  of  ventilation  fail  is 
to  assert  that  the  vessels  have  ceased  to  move,  there  being 
no  sails  and  no  air  for  the  boiler  furnaces  except  what  is 
drawn  in  by  centrifugal  blowers  through  the  turret,  or 
through  impregnable  air-trunks  on  deck." 

In  the  course  of  the  year  1863,  which  saw  Ericsson  thus 
defending  his  monitors,  his  heart  was  cheered  by  news 


254          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

from  England.  Sir  Edward  J.  Reed,  the  chief  constructor 
of  the  British  Navy,  had  designed  an  ironclad,  the  Bel- 
lerophon,  in  which  a  revolving  turret  was  introduced.  To 
this  vessel  succeeded  the  Thunderer  and  the  Inflexible,  sug- 
gested by  Ericsson's  Dictator,  a  ship  to  be  presently  de- 
scribed. England  was  followed  by  Italy,  whose  citadel- 
ship  Duillio,  completed  in  1880,  embodied  an  Ericsson  tur- 
ret, with  armor  thicker  and  tougher  than  it  had  been  pos- 
sible to  bestow  upon  the  Monitor.  From  her  Ericsson's 
only  profit  was  as  one  of  her  builders.  He  did  not  patent 
the  Monitor  as  an  invention,  nor  did  he  patent  at  least  two 
score  devices  which  he  originated  in  her  equipment.  In 
1882,  Senator  Orville  H.  Platt,  of  Connecticut,  proposed 
that  Congress  should  accord  Ericsson  some  material  recog- 
nition of  his  services.  He  replied :  "  Nothing  could  induce 
me  to  accept  any  remuneration  from  the  United  States  for 
the  Monitor  invention,  once  presented  by  me  as  my  con- 
tribution to  the  glorious  Union  cause,  the  triumph  of  which 
freed  four  million  bondmen." 

The  cardinal  feature  in  the  Monitor  was  its  revolving  tur- 
ret; Ericsson's  claim  as  its  originator  was  disputed  by 
Theodore  R.  Timby,  who,  in  1842,  patented  a  cylindrical 
iron  citadel  for  harbor  defense,  having  several  floors,  each 
carrying  guns  fixed  on  radial  slides.  In  its  original  plan 
this  structure  was  intended  to  revolve  continuously,  whether 
its  guns  were  fired  or  not.  Timby  exhibited  his  model  at 
home  and  abroad,  and  he  accused  Ericsson  of  deliberate 
plagiarism,  apart  from  unessential  improvements  of  detail. 
This  borrowing  Ericsson  denied  with  indignation,  pointing 
out  that  revolving  structures  for  the  discharge  of  pro- 
jectiles were  two  thousand  years  old,  and  affirming  that  he 
could  not  remember  the  time  when  he  did  not  know  of  their 
existence.  He  claimed  that  a  ship  of  war  provided  with 
a  turret  capable  of  turning  toward  any  point  of  the  com- 
pass was  original  with  himself.  But  there  was  Timby's 


JOHN  ERICSSON  255 

patent  for  a  structure  of  features  unmistakably  similar ;  this 
patent,  as  reissued  with  broadened  claims,  was  bought  by 
the  partners  of  Ericsson,  but  without  his  consent.  Their 
purchase,  they  believed,  would  give  them  control  of  a  har- 
bor defense  which  they  expected  the  Government  to  adopt 
on  a  comprehensive  scale.  In  Timby's  design  the  pilot- 
house was  in  the  upper  part  of  the  turret.  Ericsson  put  his 
pilot-house  at  some  distance  from  his  turret,  an  arrangement 
which  Timby  criticised  in  vain.  The  controversy  with 
Timby  provoked  Ericsson  greatly:  it  plainly  turned  UP- 


FLOATING  BATTERY  INVENTED  BY  ABRAHAM  BLOODGOOD,  1807 

on  a  case  common  enough  in  the  history  of  inven- 
tions, where  an  idea  occurs  independently  to  more  seekers 
than  one. 

As  long  ago  as  1807  there  appeared  in  Albany,  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Useful 
Arts  in  the  State  of  New  York,  an  illustrated  description  of 
a  floating  battery  invented  by  Abraham  Bloodgood.  It  was 
designed  to  be  firmly  anchored,  and  this  is  the  only  par- 
ticular in  which  it  essentially  differed  from  the  Monitor. 
Its  cylindrical  turret  for  guns,  strongly  armored,  was  held  to 
offer  new  advantages  in  attack : 

(i)   Its  rotary  motion  would  bring  all  its  cannon  to  bear 


256          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

successively,  as  fast  as  they  could  be  loaded,  on  objects  in 
any  direction. 

(2)  Its  circular  form  would  cause  every  shot  that  might 
strike  it,  not  near  the  center,  to  glance. 

(3)  Its  motion,  as  well  as  its  want  of  parts  on  which 
grapplings  might  be  fastened,  would  render  boarding  almost 
impossible. 

(4)  The  steadiness  with  which  it  would  lie  on  the  water 
would  render  its  fire  more  certain  than  that  of  a  ship. 

(5)  The  guns  would  be  more  easily  worked  than  is  com- 
mon, as  they  would  not  require  any  lateral  movement. 

(6)  The  men  would  be  completely  sheltered  from  the  fire 
of  the  elevated  parts  of  an  enemy's  ship. 

(7)  The  battery  might  be  made  so  strong  as  to  be  im- 
penetrable to  cannon  shot. 

With  the  triumph  of  the  Monitor,  the  national  demand 
for  armorclads  of  her  type  became  imperative.  Within  a 
week  from  the  encounter  at  Hampton  Roads,  Ericsson  was 
requested  to  construct  six  monitors,  the  Passaic  and  her  sis- 
ter vessels.  With  his  usual  energy,  as  soon  as  the  work  was 
verbally  agreed  upon  he  began  his  drawings.  They  flew  so 
fast  from  his  hands  that  his  most  rapid  assistant  was  soon 
left  far  behind ;  and  so  complete  was  every  detail,  so  thor- 
ough the  coordination  of  part  with  part,  that  he  did  not  find 
it  necessary  to  examine  any  work  after  execution.  His 
method  was  to  begin  with  the  drawing  which  demanded 
most  shopwork,  the  others  following  in  their  order  of  dif- 
ficulty. One  sheet  went  to  this  foundry,  another  to  that 
machine  shop,  and  so  on.  When  the  several  parts  were 
assembled,  each  fitted  the  others  as  a  voussoir  joins  its  mates 
in  a  well-planned  arch. 

While  the  Passaic  and  five  similar  monitors  were  still  on 
the  stocks,  Ericsson  was  requested  to  furnish  plans  for  four 
more  monitors,  the  Nahant,  Nantucket,  Weehawken,  and 
Comanche.  Ericsson  told  his  partners  that  he  had  agreed 


JOHN  ERICSSON  257 

to  furnish  duplicate  plans  to  the  contractors  for  these  ves- 
sels; his  partners  said  that  this  would  simply  invite  com- 
petition with  firms  who  secured  for  nothing  what  had  cost 
the  inventor  and  his  associates  much  money.  He  replied 
that  he  felt  in  duty  bound  to  aid  the  Government  to  the  full 
extent  of  his  power  in  meeting  the  emergencies  of  war. 
To  this  sentiment  his  partners  yielded,  but  the  result  they 
feared  was  suffered.  Rivalry  led  to  an  active  demand  for 
labor  and  material.  The  firms  who  worked  from  Ericsson's 
matured  plans,  made  castings  from  his  patterns,  and  dupli- 
cated his  wrought-iron  work,  had  distinct  advantage  over 
him  as  a  builder. 

On  June  18,  1862,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  requested 
Ericsson  to  build  two  large  ironclads;  one  of  them  with  a 
single  revolving  turret,  the  other  with  two  turrets.  These 
vessels  were  afterward  named  the  Dictator  and  the  Puritan. 
The  Dictator  was  312  feet  in  length,  50  feet  in  breadth, 
21  2-3  feet  in  depth  of  hold,  with  20  feet  draught.  Her 
turret,  with  an  inside  diameter  of  24  feet,  had  armor  15 
inches  thick.  Her  two  propellers  were  each  21^2  feet  in 
diameter:  her  displacement  was  4,971  tons.  Ericsson  op- 
posed the  demand  for  two  propellers  as  here  introduced, 
and  he  objected  to  two  turrets  for  the  Puritan,  but,  sorely 
to  his  chagrin,  he  had  to  bow  to  official  behests.  Two  years 
later  he  had  his  way,  when  it  was  decided  that  the  Puritan 
should  have  but  one  turret,  with  two  2O-inch  guns,  each 
weighing  48  tons,  with  solid  spherical  shot  of  1,000  pounds. 
The  Dictator  sailed  from  New  York  on  December  15,  1864, 
arriving  at  Fort  Monroe  two  days  afterward.  The  Civil 
War  was  fast  approaching  its  close,  and  the  Dictator  was 
never  tested  under  fire.  When  peace  was  declared,  the 
Puritan  was  unfinished,  and,  there  being  no  immediate  de- 
mand for  her  services,  unfinished  she  remained. 

War  vessels  much  less  massive  than  the  Dictator  or  the 
Puritan  were  suggested  by  the  Monitor.  Her  success  was 


258          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

in  part  due  to  her  lightness  of  draught,  but  eleven  feet, 
which  enabled  her  to  manoeuver  in  shallow  waters.  Gun- 
boats on  the  same  general  plan,  designed  to  draw  but  six 
feet  of  water,  could  ply  in  many  a  Southern  stream  not  deep 
enough  for  the  Monitor.  In  response  to  a  request  from 
Assistant  Secretary  Fox,  Ericsson  sent  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment, without  charge,  specifications  for  shallow  boats  of  this 
type.  Their  dimensions  were  to  be  221  by  41  feet,  with 
flat-bottomed  hulls,  168  by  31  feet,  incased  in  solid  timber, 
with  easy  lines,  and  extending  20  feet  beyond  the  hull  for- 
ward, and  32  feet  aft.  Each  was  to  have  two  propellers,  and 
carry  3-inch  armor.  Turrets  and  pilot-houses  were  to  copy 
those  of  the  Passaic.  These  designs  were  handed  for  execu- 
tion to  Chief  Engineer  Stimers,  who  had  been  associated 
with  Ericsson  in  the  construction  of  the  Monitor,  and  who 
had  rendered  vital  services  in  her  fight  with  the  Merrimac. 
Under  his  direction  twenty  boats  were  built,  at  a  cost  of 
$14,000,000.  Ericsson's  plans,  as  they  left  his  hands,  could 
have  been  carried  out  with  success ;  as  radically  changed  by 
Stimers,  the  boats,  when  launched,  all  but  refused  to  float. 
An  opportunity  to  swarm  up  the  shallow  waters  of  the 
South  was  therefore  missed,  and  an  immense  outlay  was 
wholly  wasted.  From  time  to  time,  as  work  progressed  on 
his  altered  designs,  Ericsson  loudly  remonstrated,  and  in 
vain.  He  was  enraged  and  disgusted ;  but  that  large  heart 
of  his  had  no  space  for  rancor.  Though  forced  to  condemn 
Stimers'  work,  he  bore  no  hostility  to  the  man.  Stimers 
died  soon  afterward,  and  in  poverty.  Ericsson  educated  his 
daughter,  and  joined  in  a  plea  that  Congress  should  pension 
Stimers'  family. 

Ericsson  was  a  great  engineer  because  he  was  first  of  all 
a  great  man.  This  came  out  in  his  passionate  love  of  his 
native  land.  He  had  left  her  shores  at  twenty-three — never 
to  behold  them  again,  yet  she  had  no  son  on  her  soil  more 
devoted  to  her.  He  was  convinced  that  Sweden,  with  her 


JOHN  ERICSSON  259 

small  population,  could  only  defend  herself  against  Russia 
or  Germany  by  mechanical  means.  He  sent  to  Stockholm, 
as  a  gift,  a  1 5-inch  Rodman  gun,  then  the  most  effective 
piece  of  ordnance  afloat.  Throughout  the  summer  of  1867 
he  remained  in  New  York,  busy  at  his  drawing-board,  plan- 
ning means  of  defense  for  the  coasts  of  Sweden.  He  pro- 
posed a  fleet  of  vessels,  each  of  but  140  tons,  designed  to 
fight  bows  on,  their  turrets  stationary  and  oval  in  section, 
so  as  to  offer  the  narrowest  possible  target  to  an  enemy. 
The  pilot-houses  were  put  aft,  out  of  the  line  of  fire.  The 
machinery  for  the  first  vessel  he  presented  as  a  gift.  Creep- 
ing along  the  coast  from  inlet  to  inlet,  always  in  shallow 
water,  these  boats  could  not  be  run  down,  and  meantime 
could  deliver  a  deadly  fire.  Afterward  Ericsson  advised 
Sweden  to  adopt  for  her  defense,  gunboats  as  preferable 
to  monitors.  The  torpedoes  of  that  day  he  regarded  with- 
out fear.  He  maintained  that  their  removal,  even  in  con- 
siderable numbers,  involved  no  special  difficulty  or  risk. 
His  plans  and  counsels  were  accompanied  by  material  aid. 
His  gifts  to  the  Swedish  navy  up  to  September,  1867,  ex- 
ceeded $23,000,  a  large  sum  as  compared  with  his  modest 
fortune. 

Spain  followed  Sweden  on  Ericsson's  drawing-table.  In 
September,  1868,  Queen  Isabella  II.  was  driven  from  her 
throne,  and  Spain  entered  upon  a  long  period  of  civil 
strife.  This  prompted  the  enemies  of  Spain  in  Cuba  to 
attempt  delivering  the  Island  from  Spanish  authority.  The 
Provincial  Government,  representing  the  Spanish  Monarchy, 
found  repression  to  be  a  perplexing  and  perilous  task.  In 
their  extremity  they  despatched  to  New  York,  early  in  1869, 
two  naval  officers  of  high  rank,  to  secure  sorely  needed 
ships  of  war.  They  called  upon  Delamater  &  Company, 
who  immediately  consulted  their  friend  Ericsson.  As  he 
had  just  solved  questions  for  Sweden  such  as  those  now 
presented  by  Cuba,  he  at  once  suggested  a  scheme  for 


26o          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

thirty  gunboats  to  encircle  the  Cuban  seaboard.  Each  ves- 
sel was  to  be  107  feet  by  22^/2,  with  6  feet  depth  of  hold; 
two  propellers,  and  a  loo-pound  gun  were  to  complete  each 
equipment.  Surface-condensers  were  to  perform  double 
duty,  returning  exhaust  steam  as  fresh  water  to  the  boilers, 
and  supporting  the  engines  so  as  to  dispense  with  special 
framework. 

The  price  for  each  vessel  was  $42,500,  so  that  the  whole 
fleet  cost  $1,275,000,  or  no  more  than  a  single  cruiser  of 
moderate  size.  The  first  boat  was  launched  on  June  23, 
1869,  thirty-four  working  days  after  laying  her  keel.  When 
three  months  and  sixteen  days  more  had  elapsed,  the  thir- 
tieth and  last  vessel  was  launched,  and  fifteen  of  the  fleet 
had  taken  their  boilers  and  engines  on  board.  Captain- 
General  De  Rodas  issued  a  proclamation  to  the  insurgent 
Cubans  on  March  24,  1870,  pointing  out  that  in  view  of 
the  chain  of  war  vessels  on  their  coasts,  they  could  not 
expect  aid  from  abroad.  His  warning  was  effective.  It  is 
highly  probable  that  the  insurgents  would,  in  1869,  have 
achieved  independence  for  Cuba  had  Ericsson  not  thus 
strengthened  the  hands  of  Spain. 

In  planning  his  vessels  of  war,  Ericsson  devoted  much 
thought  to  improving  their  heavy  guns.  This  led  him  to  a 
prolonged  study  of  the  strength  of  metals  and  alloys  as 
used  for  guns,  the  effects  of  explosions,  the  wear  and 
tear  they  cause,  and  the  laws  governing  the  paths  of  pro- 
jectiles. Year  by  year,  as  his  investigations  proceeded, 
powders  were  heightened  in  effect,  so  that  their  use  became 
at  once  more  difficult  and  more  alluring.  These  advances 
left  unaffected  the  value  of  his  reinforcement,  originated  on 
the  Princeton  in  1842,  when  he  had  bound  her  cracked 
gun  with  hoops  of  wrought-iron.  That  gun,  thus  strength- 
ened, did  its  duty  faithfully,  as  we  have  already  observed. 
It  penetrated  four  and  a  half  inches  of  iron,  and  then 
passed  through  a  sandbank  behind  it  eight  feet  in  thickness. 


JOHN  ERICSSON  261 

This  gun  had  an  auxiliary  in  Ericsson's  wrought-iron  car- 
riage for  the  Princeton,  devised  in  1843,  which  dispensed 
with  breeching.  This  invention  substantiated  his  claim  to 
be  the  pioneer  of  modern  ordnance. 

The  hoops,  or  huge  washers,  with  which  Ericsson  clasped 
the  core  of  a  gun  were,  after  all,  a  return  to  the  first 
artillery  ever  built.  The  earliest  makers  of  heavy  guns 
arranged  in  a  circle  longitudinal  bars  of  wrought-iron,  and 
surrounded  them  with  hoops  of  the  same  material.  These 
rude  weapons  were  for  a  time  superseded  by  guns  of  cast- 
iron,  a  metal  which  Ericsson  always  distrusted.  He  returned 
to  the  use  of  wrought-iron,  and,  well  aware  of  the  injury  it 
might  receive  in  large  masses  under  a  mammoth  forging 
hammer,  he  had  recourse  to  hoops,  identical  in  form  and  ef- 
fectiveness with  those  of  old  days.  In  each  hoop,  or  ring, 
the  iron-fiber,  neither  bruised  nor  jarred,  was  at  its  strong- 
est. It  was  easy  to  use  rings  so  wide  that  the  encircled  gun 
might  safely  be  filled  with  powder  from  end  to  end.  With 
this  reinforcement  at  command,  Ericsson  designed  a  gun  of 
15-inch  caliber,  and  he  insisted  that  in  all  reinforced  guns 
charges  of  powder  might  be  much  increased  with  perfect 
safety.  Experiment  proved  him  right.  No  1 5-inch  guns 
came  to  grief  during  the  Civil  War;  one  of  them  was  tested 
with  loo  pounds  of  powder,  and  at  the  trying  elevation  of 
45  degrees,  yet  showed  no  distress.  In  1890,  guns  weighing 
in  tons,  five  times  as  much  as  the  1 5-inch  gun,  were 
rendering  satisfactory  service  to  foreign  navies.  Ericsson, 
during  the  Civil  War,  was  constantly  provoked  to  anger 
by  having  his  guns  undercharged  with  powder.  Naval 
commanders,  with  the  limits  of  past  practice  in  their  minds, 
were  blind  to  the  fact  that  his  guns  were  vastly  stronger 
than  the  guns  built  in  their  early  days  of  service.  He 
found,  as  many  another  reformer  has  found,  that  old  habits 
are  inflexible,  and  that  new  knowledge  must  undergo  many 


262          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

a  wearisome  test,  and  survive  many  a  baseless  doubt,  be- 
fore it  acquires  a  right  of  way. 

One  objection  to  Ericsson's  heavy  guns  was  the  alleged 
impossibility  of  handling  them  aboard  ship.  Their  de- 
signer once  more  came  to  the  rescue.  His  wrought-iron 
gun-carriage,  with  its  friction  gear,  checked  the  recoil  of  a 
12-inch  gun  with  a  3<>pound  charge  in  a  distance  of  16 
inches.  Yet  more:  on  the  Spanish  gunboat  Tornado,  he 
provided  a  rotary  gun-carriage  and  transit  platform  for 
heavy  guns,  enabling  a  gunner  to  aim  at  any  point  of  the 
compass.  Here  he  repeated  in  effect  the  mechanism  of  his 
revolving  turret,  with  its  sweep  through  a  full  circle. 

From  guns  Ericsson  now  passed  to  torpedoes.  He  held 
that  when  stationary  they  had  little  or  no  value;  his  ex- 
periments led  him  to  expect  much  from  torpedoes  properly 
directed  and  propelled.  In  1870,  he  devised  a  torpedo 
driven  and  steered  by  compressed  air  carried  through  a 
flexible  tube,  paid  out  from  a  reel  either  on  board  the 
weapon  or  on  shore.  At  intervals  for  five  years  Ericsson 
continued  his  experiments.  In  the  spring  of  1875,  Com- 
modore W.  N.  Jeffers,  Chief  of  the  Naval  Bureau  of  Ord- 
nance, reported  that  a  model  torpedo  which  he  had  re- 
ceived from  Ericsson  "  worked  regularly  without  the  slight- 
est trouble.  ...  I  have  exhibited  it  to  other  chiefs  of 
Bureaus,  and  to  other  naval  officers,  who  were  free  in  their 
expressions  of  wonder  and  satisfaction  at  the  successful 
manner  in  which  it  operated." 

Commodore  Jeffers  now  placed  at  the  disposal  of  Erics- 
son a  smooth-bore  1 5-inch  gun  with  its  carriage,  mounted 
on  a  Navy  Yard  scow.  With  this  gun  tests  were  conducted 
at  Sandy  Hook,  proving  that  an  elongated  1 5-inch  shell 
forming  a  torpedo  projectile  10  feet  in  length,  designed  to 
carry  dynamite  or  other  high  explosive,  could  be  fired  in 
any  direction  from  an  ordinary  smooth-bore  gun,  using  a 
small  charge  of  powder  as  the  impelling  agent.  The  plan 


JOHN  ERICSSON  263 

embraced  a  revolving  turret  for  projecting  and  directing 
the  gun.  This  turret  Ericsson  regarded  as  indispensable, 
and  when  Commodore  Jeffers  wished  it  to  be  omitted,  the 
experiments  were  discontinued.  Ericsson,  on  his  own 
initiative,  now  proceeded  to  plan  his  famous  Destroyer, 
which  embodied  his  matured  ideas  of  torpedo  warfare. 

The  Destroyer  was  a  comparatively  small,  swift,  armor- 
clad  vessel,  with  a  submarine  gun  to  project  torpedoes. 
All  her  vital  parts  were  deeply  submerged,  and  it  was  in- 


LONGITUDINAL  SECTION  OF  "DESTROYER"  SHOWING  GUN  AND 
PROJECTILE 

[From  "Life  of  John   Ericsson"  by  W.  Conant  Church.    Copyright,  by 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  i8gi.] 


tended  that  her  pace  should  equal  or  excel  that  of  the  craft 
she  sought  to  destroy.  Ericsson  submitted  his  plans  to  the 
Navy  Department;  three  years  passed,  and  nothing  was 
done.  He  decided  to  look  elsewhere  than  to  Washington. 
His  experiments  were  so  gratifying  that  on  August  7,  1880, 
he  announced  to  his  friends,  the  Delamater  Company,  who 
built  the  Destroyer :  "  Ironsides  are  doomed.  Our  torpedo, 
with  the  propelling  piston  bolted  to  its  aft  end,  went  yes- 
terday 275  feet  in  a  direct  course  under  water,  and  then 
floated  to  the  surface.  The  torpedo  was  not  fully  loaded, 
hence  did  not  go  as  far  as  it  might.  Enough  was  accom- 
plished, however,  to  show  that  we  can  sink  an  enemy  with- 


264          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

out  ram,  steam-launch  or  spar-torpedo  of  our  navy.  All 
these  devices  are  gone  to  the  dogs." 

Commander  Jeffers  was  relieved  from  his  office  on  July 
i,  1881.  His  successor  did  not  regard  the  Destroyer  with 
favor.  He  held  that  the  projectile  of  the  submarine  gun 
should  have  more  range,  ignoring  the  fact  that  the  range 
of  a  missile  fired  in  so  dense  a  medium  as  water  is  very 
limited.  Aside  from  this,  a  longer  range  would  demand 
a  greater  velocity,  demanding  a  charge  so  heavy  as  to 
shatter  a  projectile  of  the  necessary  lightness.  The  plans 
were  now  submitted  to  a  naval  board,  with  Admiral  Self- 
ridge  as  its  chairman.  They  reported  favorably,  and  re- 
ceived the  concurrence  of  Admiral  Porter,  the  head  of  the 
Navy,  who  sought  from  Congress  an  appropriation  for  the 
purchase  of  the  Destroyer,  urging  Ericsson  to  keep  her 
construction  a  secret  from  foreigners.  Admiral  Porter  in 
formal  terms  recommended  that  twenty  steel  vessels  be  built 
on  Ericsson's  plans,  with  quadruple  expansion  engines  to 
assure  a  speed  of  thirty  miles  an  hour.  To  this  proposal 
the  new  chief  of  the  Ordnance  Bureau  demurred,  insisting 
on  conditions  to  which  Ericsson  would  not  agree.  These 
conditions  included  a  thorough  test  of  the  Destroyer  at  its 
inventor's  cost,  and  at  sea,  although  the  vessel  was  not  built 
for  sea  service.  And,  further :  it  was  required  that  her  guns 
employ  high  explosives.  In  vain  Ericsson  pleaded  that 
these  terms  would  subject  him,  in  case  of  accident,  to  the 
penalties  of  manslaughter,  or,  at  least,  to  heavy  damages, 
as  his  ship  did  not  hold  a  Government  commission.  He 
justly  said  that  it  was  unfair  to  ask  him  to  add  twenty  thou- 
sand dollars  to  the  hundred  thousand  he  had  already  ex- 
pended in  solving  a  problem  of  national  defense. 

One-half  the  cost  of  the  Destroyer  had  been  advanced 
by  Mr.  C.  H.  Delamater,  and  he  grew  weary  of  the  long  de- 
lays in  canvassing  for  its  adoption.  His  interest  in  Erics- 
son prompted  him  to  protest  against  his  devoting  to  a  thanjc- 


JOHN  ERICSSON  265 

less  public  service  any  more  of  the  life  of  arf  octogenarian. 
To  the  end  of  his  days  Ericsson  was  warmly  concerned  in 
the  Destroyer,  though  he  had  little  hope  of  aid  from  a  nation 
which  in  forty  years  had  not  found  time  to  pay  him  for  his 
work  on  the  Princeton.  Twice  he  offered  to  build  for  the 
Navy  Department  an  improved  Destroyer,  with  a  guarantee 
of  success,  relieving  the  Department  of  all  responsibility. 
His  offers  were  declined.  In  1886,  in  his  eighty- fourth 
year,  he  wrote  to  the  Hon.  A.  H.  Cragin: 

"  The  success  of  the  Destroyer  would  destroy  the  pros- 
pects of  the  powerful  fortification  and  gun  interest,  which 
looks  forward  to  an  expenditure  of  one  hundred  millions 
within  a  few  years.  Then  we  are  opposed  by  the  iron- 
clad shipbuilding  and  armorplate  combinations ;  not  to  men- 
tion torpedo-boat  builders,  submarine-boat  projectors,  and 
dynamite  gun  manufacturers,  all  against  us,  as  their  plans 
will  be  worthless  if  foreign  ironclads  can  be  shattered  and 
our  harbors  defended  without  guns  and  fortifications,  by 
the  employment  of  the  simple  and  cheap  submarine  artil- 
lery system." 

The  cost  of  the  British  Inflexible,  with  its  turret  and 
armament,  was  $3,250,000.  For  this  sum  a  fleet  of  thirty 
Destroyers  could  be  built,  and  one-half  of  the  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men  forming  the  crew  of  the  Inflexible  could 
man  them  all.  To  the  four  heavy  guns  of  the  larger 
vessel  they  would  oppose  thirty  submarine  cannon,  each 
having  the  huge  bulk  of  the  armorclad  as  a  target  for  its 
500  pounds  of  high  explosive.  Was  it  not  better,  Erics- 
son argued,  to  distribute  the  risks  of  war  among  thirty 
vessels  than  to  center  them  in  a  single  huge  craft?  And 
could  there  be  any  doubt  that  the  advantage  would  rest 
with  the  navy  which  chose  the  superior  weight  of  metal, — 
or,  in  this  case,  of  explosive? 

On  April  27,  1887,  Ericsson  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  the  Hon.  William  C.  Whitney,  stating  that  he 


266          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

had  just  completed  the  plan  of  a  vessel  for  harbor  defense : 
she  was  of  the  Destroyer  type,  24  feet  beam,  13  feet  deep, 
and  carried  a  projecting  belt  of  steel  armor  3  inches  thick 
and  30  inches  deep,  extending  around  to  her  outer  hull. 
This  armor,  backed  by  oak  planking,  3^  inches  thick,  was 
sufficient  protection  against  the  fire  of  machine  guns,  and 
the  vessel,  when  trimmed  for  conflict,  would  be  nearly  sub- 
merged. The  portion  of  the  cabin,  projecting  3^2  feet 
above  the  main  deck,  was  similarly  protected.  The  breast 
armor  for  protection  against  heavy  guns  in  fighting,  bow 
on,  was  of  inclined  compound  steel  plates  30  inches  thick, 
backed  by  6  feet  of  oak  timber.  Ericsson  asked  $275,000 
as  the  price  of  this  vessel.  His  offer  to  build  it  was  not 
accepted. 

In  1876,  Ericsson  justly  described  himself  to  an  intimate 
friend,  as  "  the  man  who  has  done  more  to  promote  marine 
engineering,  mechanical  motors,  and  implements  of  naval 
warfare  than  any  other  ten  persons  together  during  the  last 
thirty  years."  Let  us  review  his  improvements  in  the 
steam  engine,  which,  as  a  prime-mover,  he  vainly  en- 
deavored to  supersede.  His  steam  engines,  from  those  built 
for  the  little  tug  Stockton,  in  1839,  to  those  of  4,500  horse- 
power for  the  Dictator  in  1882,  all  had  one  feature  in  com- 
mon, original  with  him.  They  brought  the  power  of  two 
engines  to  bear  at  right  angles  upon  one  crank-pin.  In 
another  invention  he  gave  effect  to  a  suggestion  of  James 
Watt,  by  making  a  piston  vibrate  within  a  semi-cylinder. 
Ericsson  introduced  this  design  in  the  Princeton,  and  ap- 
plied it  with  modification  in  the  Edith  and  the  Massachusetts. 
In  1859,  the  United  States  Navy  sought  an  engine  specially 
adapted  to  screw  propulsion.  Ericsson  responded  with  a 
semi-cylinder  of  qualified  type.  He  divided  a  cylinder  mid- 
way by  a  steam-tight  partition,  forming  two  short  cylinders, 
each  with  a  piston:  the  two  pistons  moved  in  opposite  di- 
rections, and  were  attached  to  the  same  crank  on  the  pro- 


JOHN  ERICSSON  267 

peller-shaft  by  levers,  rockshafts,  and  connecting  rods. 
These,  and  other  inventions  of  a  high  order,  Ericsson  de- 
scribed and  pictured  in  his  "  Contributions  to  the  Centen- 
nial Exhibition,"  published  in  Philadelphia,  in  1876. 

During  his  sixty  years  of  professional  activity,  the  ef- 
ficiency of  steam  engines  was  increased  about  tenfold. 
Toward  this  advance  he  contributed  the  surface-condenser, 
a  feed-water  heater,  and  a  superheater.  In  addition  to  these 
original  devices,  wherever  he  came  upon  good  practice 
he  carried  it  a  step  further.  He  adopted  and  improved 
artificial  draft,  the  expansion  of  steam  in  two  cylinders 
instead  of  one;  and,  well  aware  of  the  great  economy  of 
high  pressures,  he  employed  steam  at  225  pounds  per  square 
inch  when  100  pounds  were  deemed  the  limit  of  safe  work- 
ing. With  metals  and  alloys  of  new  strength,  with  machine- 
tools  of  heightened  power  and  precision,  he  saw  that  new 
gifts  were  proffered  to  engine  builders.  He  grasped  them 
with  boldness  and  success. 

From  Ericsson,  the  engineer,  let  us  turn  to  Ericsson,  the 
Swede.  Once,  in  writing  to  the  Royal  Librarian  at  Stock- 
holm, he  said :  "  I  know  but  one  fatherland :  I  would  rather 
that  my  ashes  reposed  under  a  heap  of  cinders  there,  than 
under  the  stateliest  monument  in  America." 

And  Sweden  requited  his  fealty  with  every  honor  in  her 
gift.  In  1852,  he  was  made  a  Knight  of  the  Order  of  Vasa. 
In  1866,  an  industrial  exhibition  was  held  in  Stockholm,  to 
which  the  great  inventor  was  invited  in  the  most  cordial 
terms  by  the  Crown  Prince,  afterward  King  Oscar  II.  His 
invitation,  with  equal  cordiality,  Ericsson  declined  on  the 
score  of  pressing  engagements  from  which  he  could  not  free 
himself.  The  next  year  his  old  neighbors  of  Filipstad  paid 
him  a  compliment  which  touched  him  to  the  heart.  On 
September  3d  they  unveiled  at  Langbanshyttan,  a  superb 
shaft  of  granite,  pyramidal  in  form,  18  feet  high,  and  8  feet 
square  at  the  base,  inscribed: 


268          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

JOHN  ERICSSON 

was  born  here 
on  the  3ist  of  July,  1803. 

There  was  a  characteristic  word  in  the  letter  of  ac- 
knowledgment which  he  sent  through  his  friend,  Com- 
mander A.  Aldersparre: 

".  .  .  It  is  with  great  pleasure  I  find  that,  at  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  monument  at  Langbarishyttan,  my  former  play- 
fellow, Jonas  Olsson,  now  foreman  at  the  iron  foundry,  was 
present.  This  honorable  man  must  have  a  souvenir  from 
me.  Will  you  excuse  me  troubling  you  again  ?  I  inclose  a 
check  for  five  hundred  crowns  ($140),  and  would  you  please 
for  that  sum  buy  a  gold  watch  and  have  engraved  on  the 
inside,  '  To  Jonas  Olsson  from  his  playmate,  John  Erics- 
son,' and  then  have  it  delivered  to  the  honest  workman. 
Could  this  be  done  through  my  friend  Gustaf  Ekman  and 
with  a  little  ceremony,  I  would  be  pleased." 

In  1867,  when  a  terrible  famine  prevailed  in  large  areas  of 
his  native  land,  Ericsson  sent  $5,600  to  Norrland,  for  the 
purchase  of  grain  best  adapted  to  its  soil.  Says  his  biog- 
rapher, Mr.  Church :  "  A  Swedish  traveler,  who  visited 
him  at  this  time,  tells  how  his  voice  choked,  and  tears  filled 
his  eyes  as  he  spoke  of  the  distress  in  his  native  land.  He 
said :  '  Let  us  not  be  content  with  assurances  that  life  can 
be  sustained  on  herbs  not  intended  by  Nature  for  the  food 
of  human  beings.  Bags  of  meal  will  be  more  welcome 
among  the  unfortunates  than  good  advice  as  to  gathering 
coral-moss  for  winter  food.' " 

Until  his  mother's  death,  in  1853,  news  from  Sweden 
came  to  Ericsson  chiefly  through  her  letters.  He  loved 
his  mother  with  all  his  heart.  When  nothing  else  could 
tempt  him  from  his  drawing-board  he  would  turn  aside 
long  enough  to  respond  to  a  word  from  her;  and  his  re- 
sponses usually  included  remittances  for  her  comfort.  To 


JOHN  ERICSSON  269 

his  sister  in  Sweden,  Mrs.  Odner,  Ericsson  gave  a  com- 
modious house,  and  the  proceeds  of  his  Swedish  patent  for 
the  caloric  engine,  yielding  a  considerable  yearly  income. 
On  October  25,  1870,  in  a  letter  to  his  nephew,  John,  he 
said :  "  The  news  that  I  no  longer  have  a  brother  was, 
indeed,  a  severe  blow ;  it  pained  me  all  the  more  as  I  had 
received  only  a  fortnight  before  information  that  my  sister 
had  been  laid  in  her  grave.  The  thought  of  their  sufferings 
presents  itself  constantly  to  me,  and  is  in  the  highest  de- 
gree painful."  Ericsson  gave  largely  and  constantly  to 
impoverished  relations  and  friends,  and  to  public  objects. 
Yet  his  bestowals  did  not  denote  mere  pecuniary  incon- 
tinence :  he  carefully  considered  the  justice  of  each  claim, 
and  his  gifts  were  bestowed  with  sound  judgment. 

In  1868,  the.  University  of  Lund,  in  celebrating  its  second 
centenary,  extended  a  hearty  invitation  to  Ericsson.  He 
could  not  attend,  but  he  honored  the  occasion  by  sending  a 
thesis  on  solar  heat  as  a  source  of  motive-power.  His  paper 
recounted  experiments  in  which  solar  rays  falling  upon  a 
surface  ten  feet  square  had  been  concentrated  by  reflectors, 
so  as  to  evaporate  69  cubic  inches  of  water  in  an  hour,  and 
generate  by  steam  one  horse-power.  The  University,  in  ac- 
knowledgment, gave  him  a  degree  as  Doctor  of  Philosophy. 

He  constructed  his  first  solar  motor  in  1870,  and  intended 
it  to  be  a  gift  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences  in  France.  As 
incidentally  it  registered  the  amount  of  steam  generated, 
friction  was  minimized  to  the  utmost  in  its  design.  The 
sun's  rays  were  focused  upon  a  cylindrical  heater,  placed 
lengthwise  above  a  reflector  shaped  like  a  trough.  Erics- 
son believed  that  motors  on  this  model  would  have  great 
value  in  regions  where  solar  heat  is  intense,  and  where  sun- 
shine is  seldom  obscured  by  clouds.  He  said: 

"  Experiments  show  that  my  mechanism  abstracts  on  an 
average,  during  nine  hours  a  day,  for  all  latitudes  between 


270          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

the  equator  and  45  degrees,  fully  3.5  units  of  heat  per 
minute  for  each  square  foot  presented  perpendicularly  to  the 
sun's  rays.  A  unit  of  heat  equals  772  foot-pounds,  so  that, 


SOLAR  ENGINE,  OPERATED  BY  THE  INTERVENTION  OF  ATMOSPHERIC  AIR 
Designed  by  John  Ericsson.     Built  at  New  York,  1872. 

theoretically,  energy  of  2,702  foot-pounds  is  transmitted  by 
the  radiant  heat  per  minute  for  each  square  foot,  or  270,200 
foot-pounds  for  ten  feet  square,  or  8.2  horse-power.  But 
engineers  are  well  aware  that  the  whole  dynamic  energy  of 


JOHN  ERICSSON  271 

heat  cannot  be  utilized  in  any  engine  whatever.  Hence  I 
assume  that  but  one  horse-power  will  be  developed  by  the 
solar  heat  falling  upon  an  area  ten  feet  square  within  the 
latitudes  mentioned." 

From  time  to  time  during  the  remainder  of  his  life  he 
busied  himself  with  this  motor  and  with  the  storage  of  its 
motive-power.  When  he  compressed  air  for  this  purpose, 
he  found  that  he  had  to  employ  a  reservoir  of  undue  bulk. 
It  may  be  that  the  electrical  storage  battery  will  prove  to  be 
the  desideratum  here.  But  before  the  sun  in  its  direct 
beams  replaces  fuels  in  which  its  rays  are  indirectly  stored, 
coal,  peat,  and  wood  will  have  to  be  much  dearer  than  they 
are  to-day.  Heat  engines  of  modern  types  not  only  show 
a  high  economy,  but  that  economy  is  steadily  rising,  while 
their  exhausts  are  now  much  more  widely  utilized  for  heat- 
ing and  manufacturing  than  ever  before.  But  Ericsson's  la- 
bor, as  he  improved  his  solar  engine,  was  not  barren.  It 
brought  him  to  principles  of  construction  which,  adapted  to 
his  hot-air  engine,  conferred  a  new  effectiveness  upon  that 
motor.  In  its  improved  design  it  was  built  by  thousands 
by  the  Delamaters  for  a  profitable  sale.  Strange  to  say, 
Ericsson  never  patented  this  engine,  his  most  lucrative  in- 
vention. For  sixteen  years  Mr.  Alfred  W.  Raynal  was 
superintendent  of  the  Delamater  Works.  He  has  said: 
"  The  chief  characteristic  of  Ericsson  was  nobility  of  soul. 
He  had  genius  of  the  first  order,  and  under  a  grim  ex-> 
terior  he  had  a  heart  of  gold.  A  workman,  Bernard 
Sweeney,  whom  he  liked,  fell  ill  and  died.  Ericsson  ordered 
the  Works  to  be  closed  on  the  day  of  the  funeral,  that  all 
who  wished  might  attend.  He  cheerfully  paid  more  than  a 
thousand  dollars  as  the  wages  involved  in  this  tribute  of 
respect." 

And  now  it  is  fitting,  as  this  sketch  draws  to  a  close,  that 
a  word  be  said  about  the  homes  of  Ericsson  in  New  York. 
In  1843,  he  removed  from  the  Astor  House,  where  he  had 


272          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

lived  for  about  two  years,  to  95  Franklin  Street.  Here  he 
remained  until  1864,  when  he  bought  a  house  at  36  Beach 
Street  for  $20,000,  and  made  it  his  home  until  his  death. 
Beach  Street  runs  toward  the  Hudson  River,  a  few  blocks 
below  Canal  Street.  At  the  time  of  his  purchase  it  was  the 
southern  boundary  of  St.  John's  Park,  an  inclosure  much 
resembling  Gramercy  Park  to-day.  Ericsson's  front  win- 
dows at  first  enjoyed  a  full  view  of  beautiful  trees  and 
flowers.  To  oblige  a  friend,  Ericsson  joined  in  trans- 
ferring the  Park  to  the  Hudson  River  Railroad  Company: 
he  sent  the  cash  consideration  paid  him  to  Sweden,  in  relief 
of  famine  there.  His  neighborhood  soon  lost  character 
when  an  ugly  freight-house,  with  its  heavy  and  noisy  traffic, 
took  the  place  of  the  grass  and  quiet  of  the  Park.  All  this 
was  uncomfortable  and  disagreeable  to  a  man  so  sensitive  as 
Ericsson.  But  there  he  remained,  through  an  unconquer 
able  dread  of  removal. 

During  the  final  years  of  his  life,  Ericsson  was  assisted 
in  his  engineering  work  by  Mr.  F.  V.  Lassoe,  a  native  of 
Denmark.  His  private  secretary  for  twenty-five  years  was 
Mr.  Samuel  W.  Taylor,  whose  compliance  with  his  idiosyn- 
crasies made  him  indispensable.  Ericsson  grew  so  accus- 
tomed to  his  secretary's  clear  handwriting  that  when,  in  his 
later  years,  he  received  a  typewritten  letter,  he  read  it 
only  when  copied  by  Mr.  Taylor's  pen.  Indeed,  this  cham- 
pion of  mechanical  progress,  in  his  hostility  to  innovation  in 
personal  matters,  illustrated  anew  that  a  strong  brain  may 
be  built  in  water-tight  compartments.  Objections  urged 
against  the  copying-press  on  its  original  introduction  were, 
in  Ericsson's  mind,  never  silenced.  He  would  have  only 
manuscript  copies  of  his  letters,  and,  of  course,  this  rule 
created  much  unnecessary  labor.  In  account-keeping  he 
went  no  further  than  to  scribble  memoranda  in  his  check- 
books. For  more  than  fifty  years  he  kept  diaries,  pro- 
fessional and  personal  in  their  entries.  These  he  destroyed 


: 


JOHN  ERICSSON  273 

on  the  appearance  of  Froude's  "  Life  of  Carlyle."  A  con- 
tributing reason  probably  was,  too,  that  he  wished  to  be 
judged  by  his  mature  work,  with  no  record  of  the  gropings 
and  fumblings  which,  of  necessity,  had  gone  before. 

When  he  had  a  difficult  problem  to  solve  he  would  lean 
back  in  his  chair,  with  his  head  resting  against  the  wall, 
and  sink  into  a  quiescent  state,  approaching  unconscious- 
ness. Then,  he  was  accustomed  to  say,  his  best  thoughts 
came  to  him.  Once,  indeed,  a  puzzling  combination  in  his 
solar  engine  was  worked  out  in  a  dream.  He  felt  that  it 
was  only  by  sheer  disregard  of  precedent  and  example  that 
he  could  free  his  mind  from  restraint,  and  fulfil  his  destiny 
as  an  original  worker.  And  yet  the  habit  of  solitary  toil 
thus  acquired  became  at  last  too  strong.  When  mechanical 
and  engineering  practice  was  forging  ahead  with  quick- 
ened pace,  he  ignored  its  new  horizons,  and  thus  missed 
what  he  might  otherwise  have  accomplished.  It  must  be 
plainly  said  that  there  was  in  him,  with  all  his  high  virtues, 
a  streak  of  downright  perversity.  He  never  took  a  trip 
on  the  elevated  railroad  of  New  York.  He  never  saw  Cen- 
tral Park,  and  would  have  never  seen  Brooklyn  Bridge,  had 
not  his  secretary  once  driven  upon  its  roadway  when  they 
were  out  together,  without  saying  where  they  were  going. 
It  was  long  before  he  believed  in  the  telephone,  and,  as  his 
secretary  listened  to  a  voice  which  he  recognized,  Ericsson 
exclaimed  :  "  You  are  deceived." 

Joined  to  traits  such  as  these,  were  rules  of  regimen 
simple  and  sensible.  His  plain  food  and  drink  were  care- 
fully chosen  and  exactly  measured.  After  his  fiftieth  year 
he  drank  no  alcohol.  His  usual  beverage  was  water,  in 
summer  cooled  with  ice  to  a  temperature  about  twenty  de- 
grees below  that  of  the  air.  He  was  fond  of  strong  tea: 
he  never  used  tobacco  in  any  form.  His  sleeping-room  had 
its  windows  slightly  open  the  year  round.  For  two  hours 
every  morning  he  practised  the  calisthenics  he  had  learned 


274         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

as  a  youth;  this  was  followed  by  a  sponge-bath  and  a  vig- 
orous rubbing.  As  plumbing  was  one  of  his  aversions,  there 
was  no  bathroom  in  his  house.  In  his  eighty-third  year  he 
wrote :  "  I  have  important  work  before  me,  and  hence  live 
like  a  man  training  for  a  fight.  My  reward  is  unbroken 
health.  I  digest  my  food  now  as  well  as  I  did  at  thirty. 
Nor  is  my  muscle  less  tough  and  elastic  than  at  that  age." 
This  was  a  somewhat  rosy  statement,  but  in  the  main  it 
was  true. 

For  many  years  his  cook  and  housekeeper  was  Ann  Cas- 
sidy,  a  tidy  little  Irishwoman.  She  knew  just  how  long  to 
keep  loaves  on  the  dining-room  mantel  until  they  became 
stale  enough  for  the  Captain's  palate.  She  knew  in  what 
order  to  dispose  the  two  hundred  and  forty  pins  which  kept 
smooth  the  sheet  upon  his  mattress.  She  faithfully  stood 
guard  over  his  privacy.  Yet  more:  she  pretermitted  the 
wieldings  of  her  broom  and  duster  in  strict  deference  to  his 
desire  to  be  undisturbed.  A  devout  Roman  Catholic,  she 
set  up  an  altar  in  her  quarters  on  the  third  floor.  Never 
by  word  or  sign  did  Captain  Ericsson,  a  stanch  Free- 
thinker, show  disrespect  to  her  faith  or  her  devotions. 

With  advancing  years  he  became  a  recluse.  Those  who 
had  business  with  him,  and  understood  his  ways,  could 
always  gain  access  to  him ;  but  he  allowed  no  visits  of  mere 
curiosity.  Beneath  his  indifference  to  social  usages,  his 
heart  throbbed  as  warmly  as  of  old.  On  his  last  birthday 
the  Swedish  societies  of  New  York  honored  him  with  a 
serenade.  As  he  heard  the  melodies  of  his  native  land,  his 
eyes  filled  with  tears.  When,  at  twenty-three,  he  sailed  from 
Sweden,  there  he  left  his  heart. 

When  Ericsson  entered  his  eighty-sixth  year,  his  powers 
of  mind  and  body  plainly  fell  into  declension.  In  Decem- 
ber of  that  year,  1888,  he  drew  the  plans  for  a  small  solar 
engine.  On  the  ist  of  the  following  February  he  re- 
ceived this  engine  from  a  workshop.  This,  his  final  task, 


JOHN  ERICSSON  275 

completed  the  cycle  which  began  with  the  flame  engine  he 
had  built  in  Jemtland,  seventy  years  before.  On  February 
7th  he  was  profoundly  distressed  by  the  death  of  his 
beloved  friend,  Cornelius  H.  Delamater,  who  passed  away 
at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  sixty-seven.  Depression 
of  mind  now  aggravated  feebleness  of  body.  On  February 
23d  the  iron  courage  of  Ericsson  gave  way.  His 
heart  action  was  now  so  irregular  that  he  consented,  al- 
though with  reluctance,  to  submit  to  medical  treatment.  His 
superb  physique  battled  with  disease  until  early  in  the 
morning  of  March  8,  1889,  when  he  breathed  his  last. 

He  had  lived  so  long  in  solitude,  and  so  far  outlived  the 
eras  of  the  Princeton  and  the  Monitor,  that  few  were  aware 
how  great  an  engineer  had  for  fifty  years  lived  in  New 
York,  until  they  read  the  long  and  weighty  record  of  his 
achievements.  On  March  nth,  his  personal  friends, 
with  representatives  of  Swedish  and  other  leagues,  assem- 
bled at  his  house  in  Beach  Street.  Thence  a  funeral  cortege 
proceeded  to  Trinity  Church,  where  the  burial  service  was 
read.  The  remains  were  then  borne  to  a  receiving  vault  in 
the  Marble  Cemetery,  in  Second  Street. 

Through  the  sympathetic  offices  of  the  Secretary  of 
State,  the  Hon.  James  G.  Elaine,  and  the  acting  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  the  Hon.  James  R.  Soley,  it  was  arranged 
that,  in  response  to  a  desire  expressed  by  the  Swedish  na- 
tion, the  ashes  of  her  famous  son  be  sent  to  his  native  land. 
The  Baltimore,  a  cruiser  commanded  by  the  late  Admiral 
Winfield  Scott  Schley,  then  Captain,  was  accordingly  com- 
missioned to  transport  the  remains  to  Stockholm,  sailing 
from  New  York,  August  26,  1889.  Nineteen  days  there- 
after, on  September  14,  the  Baltimore  dropped  anchor  in  the 
Swedish  capital.  With  honor  and  reverence  the  funeral 
train  was  greeted  all  the  way  from  Stockholm  to  Filipstad, 
where  the  interment  took  place  in  the  cemetery  of  the 
Lutheran  Church. 


CYRUS   H.   McCORMICK 

A  CENTURY  ago  Virginia  in  population  and  wealth  stood 
third  in  the  sisterhood  of  States,  closely  following  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania.  So  rich  was  her  soil  that  her 
yield  of  wheat  led  the  Union.  In  Virginia,  then,  one  might 
reasonably  expect  a  reaping-machine  to  appear.  Let  it 
prove  itself  to  be  worth  while,  and  it  would  find  acceptance 
not  only  at  home,  but  in  the  regions  west  of  Virginia,  fast 
filling  with  newcomers,  who  were  earning  more  as  farmers 
than  farmers  ever  earned  before.  It  might  further  be  ex- 
pected that  a  practical  reaper  would  be  built  by  a  man  as 
dexterous  before  an  anvil  as  behind  a  plow,  and  withal  a 
man  forceful  enough  to  create  a  market  among  folk  dis- 
trustful of  any  contrivance  more  complicated  than  a  fanning- 
mill  or  a  grindstone.  This  man  duly  appeared  in  the  person 
of  Cyrus  Hall  McCormick,  who  is  commonly  supposed  to 
have  invented  the  reaper.  That  supposition  is  wrong. 
And  yet,  after  all  subtraction  of  undue  credit,  he  stands 
head  and  shoulders  above  everybody  else  concerned  in  bid- 
ding engines  and  machines  take  drudgery  from  the  nerves 
and  muscles  of  farmers  the  world  over. 
~~~  Cyrus  Hall  McCormick  came  of  the  hardy  stock  which,  in 
the  reign  of  James  L,  left  Scotland  for  Ireland.  Taxa- 
tion, unjustly  heavy,  followed  them  to  Ulster.  To  escape 
^its  burdens,  they  came  to  America.  Many  of  the  hardier 
spirits  passed  from  Philadelphia,  and  other  seaports,  to 
frontier  settlements  west  of  the  Susquehanna  River,  before 
the  Indians  ceded  that  territory  to  the  Penns.  Among  these 
immigrants  was  Thomas  McCormick,  the  great-grand- 
father of  our  hero,  who,  with  his  wife,  Elizabeth  Carruth, 
landed  in  America  in  1735,  and  took  up  a  farm  near  Har- 

276 


[Engraved  from  a  photograph  and  finished  under  the  personal  criticisms 
of  Mrs.  McCormick,  by  G.  F.  C.  Smillie.] 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  277 

risburg,  Pennsylvania.  Seven  years  later  he  received  from 
the  Penns  a  large  tract  in  Paxtang  Township,  Cumberland 
County,  in  the  same  State,  and  removed  thither.  Robert, 
the  youngest  of  his  five  sons,  in  1779  emigrated  to  Rock- 
bridge  County,  Virginia.  He  fought  bravely  in  the  revolu- 
tionary war,  and  was  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Guilford 
Court  House.  In  1780  a  son  was  born  to  him,  baptized  as 
Robert,  who  became  the  father  of  Cyrus  Hall  McCormick. 
This  second  Robert  McCormick,  like  many  of  his  neigh- 
bors, joined  a  handicraft  to  his  tillage  of  land.  He  was  a 
weaver  as  well  as  a  farmer.  His  skill  with  cogwheels  and 
ratchets,  no  less  than  with  hoes  and  harrows,  spurred  and 
fed  the  ingenuity  of  a  man  who  sorely  needed  new  ma- 
chinery, and  patiently  wrought  his  plans  into  wood  and 
iron  with  such  tools  as  he  could  command. 

Robert  McCormick  on  February  n,  1808,  married  Mary 
Anna  Hall,  the  daughter  of  Patrick  Hall,  a  farmer  of  Scot- 
tish-Irish blood.  Their  first  child,  Cyrus  Hall,  was  born 
on  February  15,  1809,  at  their  homestead  near  the  village 
of  Midvale.  Seven  brothers  and  sisters  followed  him;  of 
the  eight  children,  he  was  much  the  most  sturdy  and 
energetic,  with  clear  promise  of  winning  any  prize  he  set 
his  heart  upon.  He  attended  the  common  schools  of  the 
district,  and  at  fifteen  swung  a  scythe  in  line  with  his 
father's  reapers.  To  lighten  his  toil  he  built  a  cradle,  so 
that  he  readily  kept  pace  with  his  sinewy  companions  of  full 
age.  Like  many  another  Virginian  lad  from  George  Wash- 
ington down,  he  took  up  land-surveying.  A  quadrant  whicrT> 
he  fashioned  for  this  task  was  accurate  and  neatly  finished. 
He  afterward  built  a  hillside  plow,  and  a  self-sharpening 
plow  which  he  patented  in  1831.  But  his  horizon  stretched 
itself  far  beyond  his  father's  lands,  wide  though  they  were. 
Many  years  afterward,  his  sister  Caroline  said :  "  Cyrus  was 
a  smart  boy  and  always  very  much  indulged  by  my  mother. 
She  thought  his  opinion  on  every  subject  was  just  right, 


278          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

and  if  she  differed  from  him  on  any  point  he  never  rested 
until  he  had  convinced  her  that  he  was  right.  If  Cyrus  ever 
failed  in  getting  his  way  with  father,  then  he  went  to 
mother,  and  through  her,  he  was  generally  successful. 
Cyrus  never  liked  to  work  on  the  farm.  I  remember  when 
I  was  about  twelve  his  saying  that  he  had  a  great  desire  to 
be  rich,  not  liking  the. life  of  a  farmer."  An  amusing  bit 
of  testimony  as  to  the  standing  of  Cyrus  in  the  family 
comes  out  in  a  letter  from  Isaac  Irvine  Kite,  a  neighbor,  who 
says:  "  In  1842  my  father  by  my  request  purchased  for  me 
of  C.  H.  McCormick  and  Father,  a  reaper  at  $110.  .  .  ." 
That  suffix  "  and  Father  "  is  significant  of  much ! 

Robert  McCormick  added  farm  to  farm  until  at  last  he 
^edajSoo^cres,  a  considerable  estate,  even  in  Virginia  a 
hundred  years  ago.  A  river  with  a  goodly  fall  swept 
through  his  land,  so  that  he  had  plenty  of  water-power  for 
his  saw  and  grist  mills,  enterprises  which  still  further  drew 
out  his  talents  as  a  maker  and  mender  of  machines.  A 
good  deal  of  hemp  was  then  planted  in  the  South.  For  its 
treatment  when  harvested  Robert  McCormick  invented  a 
brake  and  a  horse-power  for  its  actuation.  Cyrus  offered 
this  brake  for  sale  in  Kentucky,  where  more  hemp  was 
grown  than  in  Virginia.  But  he  found  no  customers.  This 
taught  him  a  lesson  he  never  forgot,  to  wit,  that  it  is  one 
thing  to  invent  and  build  a  machine,  and  quite  another  and 
more  difficult  feat  to  sell  that  machine. 

Long  before  he  began  to  devise  his  hemp-brake  Robert 
McCormick  had  busied  himself  modeling  a  reaper,  for  which 
his  design  went  back  as  far  as  1809,  the  year  of  Cyrus' 
birth.  As  this  machine  left  his  hands  in  1831  its  cutters 
were  rotary  saws  eight  to  ten  inches  in  diameter,  revolving 
like  shears  past  the  edge  of  a  stationary  knife.  They  were 
driven  by  bands  revolving  around  a  cylinder  turned  by  the 
main  wheel  of  the  reaper.  Vertical  reels  pressed  the  grain 
against  the  cutters,  and  delivered  the  cut  grain  on  a  rear 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  279 

platform,  where  an  endless  apron  carried  it  across  the  plat- 
form and  delivered  it  beside  the  machine.  In  a  later  de- 
sign he  employed  stationary  curved  sickles  as  cutters,  upon 
which  the  grain  was  forced  by  vertical  reels  having  pins  on 
their  rims. 

This  crude  machine  became  the  starting-point  for  the  life- 
work  of  his  son  Cyrus.  There  has  been  a  bitter  controversy 
as  to  the  parts  played  by  the  father  and  son  respectively 
in  devising  the  McCormick  reaper.  This  is  what  Cyrus 
McCormick  wrote  to  Philip  Pusey,  a  leading  member  of 
Parliament,  who  was  a  judge  at  the  Great  Exhibition  in 
London,  1851 : 

"  My  father  was  a  farmer  in  the  county  of  Rockbridge, 
State  of  Virginia,  United  States.  He  made  an  experiment 
in  cutting  grain  in  the  year  1816,  by  a  number  of  cylinders 
standing  perpendicularly.  Another  experiment  of  the  same 
kind  was  made  by  my  father  in  the  harvest  of  1831,  which 
satisfied  my  father  to  abandon  it.  Thereupon  my  attention 
was  directed  to  the  subject,  and  the  same  harvest  I  invented 
and  put  in  operation  in  cutting  late  oats  on  the.  farm  of 
John  Steele,  adjoining  my  father's,  those  parts  of  my  pres- 
ent reaper  called  the  platform  for  receiving  the  grain,  a 
straight  blade  taking  effect  on  the  grain,  supported  by  sta- 
tionary fingers  over  the  edge,  and  a  reel  to  gather  the  grain, 
which  last,  however,  I  found  had  been  used  before,  though 
not  in  the  same  combination. 

"  Although  these  parts  constituted  the  foundation  of  the 
present  machine,  I  found  in  practice  innumerable  difficulties, 
being  limited  also  to  a  few  weeks  each  year,  during  the 
harvest,  for  experimenting,  so  that  my  first  patent  for  the 
reaper  was  granted  in  June,  1834. 

"  During  this  interval  I  was  often  advised  by  my  father 
and  family  to  abandon  it,  and  pursue  my  regular  business,  as 
likely  to  be  more  profitable,  he  having  given  me  a  farm. 

"  No  machines  were  sold  until  1840,  and  I  may  say  they 
were  not  of  much  practical  value  until  the  improvements  of 
my  second  patent  in  1845. 

"  These  improvements  consist  in  reversing  the  angle  of 
the  sickle  teeth  alternately — the  improved  form  of  the 


280          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

fingers  to  hold  up  the  grain,  etc. — an  iron  case  to  preserve 
the  sickles  from  clogging,  and  a  better  mode  of  separating 
the  grain  to  be  cut.  Up  to  this  period  nothing  but  loss  of 
time  and  money  resulted  from  my  efforts.  The  sale  now 
steadily  increased,  and  is  now  more  than  a  thousand  yearly." 

McCormick,  neither  on  this  occasion  nor  on  any  other,  ac- 
knowledged how  much  he  owed  to  preceding  inventors. 
Let  us  trace  that  indebtedness  in  a  brief  outline : 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  Great  Britain 
in  mechanical  invention  led  the  world.  For  many  genera- 
tions her  soil  had  never  been  trodden  by  an  invader;  her 
silver  seas  had  protected  her  from  the  strife  and  pillage 
suffered  by  Germany,  Italy,  and  France.  Her  mines  were 
rich  in  iron  for  the  building  of  engines,  machines,  and  rail- 
ways, and  equally  rich  in  coal  for  their  motive-power. 
Following  the  triumph  of  Watt  in  devising  his  steam 
engine,  her  spinning- jennies  had  ousted  her  spinning-wheels ; 
steam-looms  in  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  had  sent  hand- 
looms  by  the  thousand  to  the  dust-bin.  Why  should  British 
inventors  stay  indoors,  why  not  invade  farms  and  fields  with 
machines  to  replace  sickles  and  scythes?  At  harvest  tide 
the  weather  was  often  wet,  so  that  quick  reaping  machines 
would  save  many  a  thousand  bushels  of  grain  otherwise 
ruined  by  rain  and  wind.  Then,  too,  such  machines  would 
save  wages,  always  higher  in  Great  Britain  than  in  con- 
tinental Europe.  Thus  it  came  about  that  mechanical  reap- 
ers were  again  and  again  attempted  a  hundred  years  ago  in 
England  and  Scotland.  Most  of  them  never  went  beyond 
the  stage  of  models  for  experiment.  A  few  were  built  in 
working  dimensions,  only  to  be  cast  aside  as  utter  failures. 
Two  or  three  types  had  merit  enough  to  stay  hard  at  work 
for  years,  and  transmit  their  strong  points  to  modern  ap- 
paratus. Let  us  take  up  the  chief  elements  in  reapers  as 
they  were  successively  brought  out  and  united : 

First  came  the  reel,  somewhat  like  the  frame  on  which 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  281 

fishermen  dry  their  nets.  This  presses  the  grain  against 
its  cutters.  A  "  rippling  cylinder  "  in  the  machine  invented 
by  William  Pitt,  of  Pendeford,  England,  in  1786,  was  a 
reel  of  a  crude  kind.  It  took  off  the  heads  of  grain  and 
delivered  them  in  a  box  behind  the  strippers.  The  reel 
in  an  improved  form  was  introduced  by  Henry  Ogle  in  1822, 
and  independently  by  Patrick  Bell  in  1826. 

A  reel  presses  grain  upon  cutters.  Originally  these  were 
mere  scythes,  mounted  radically  on  a  spindle,  and  whirled 
through  a  crop.  Joseph  Boyce,  who  patented  this  rough- 
and-ready  appliance  in  1799,  was  succeeded  by  an  implement 
maker  in  London,  Thomas  J.  Plucknett,  who  used  a  circular 
saw  instead.  This  cut  grain  fast  enough,  but  it  acted  merely 
as  a  mower.  What  was  wanted  was  a  reaper,  a  device  much 
more  difficult  to  produce.  It  was  Robert  Salmon,  of  Wo- 


PITT'S  RIPPLING  CYLINDER,  1786 

burn,  who,  in  1808,  abandoned  saws  and  hit  upon  the 
mechanism  which,  duly  bettered,  is  the  core  of  every  har- 
vester to-day.  He  bade  a  long  sharp  knife  glide  to  and 
fro  across  finger-like  blades  which  firmly  held  the  grain  to  be 
cut.  All  these  machines  at  first  were  shoved  in  front  of  an 
ox,  or  a  horse,  as  were  the  headers  of  ancient  Gaul.  Glad- 
stone, a  millwright  of  Castle  Douglas,  Kirkcudbrightshire, 
in  1808  invented  the  side-draught,  as  a  much  more  conveni- 
ent mode  of  propulsion.  His  reaper  had  a  circular  table, 
with  strong  wooden  teeth  notched  below  it  all  around,  fixed 
immediately  above  the  cutter  and  parallel  with  it.  These 
teeth  collected  the  grain  and  held  it  to  be  cut.  After  being 
cut,  the  grain  was  received  upon  the  table  and  taken  away  by 
a  rake,  or  sweeper,  and  laid  upon  the  ground.  Gladstone 
included  in  his  machine  a  small  wheel  covered  with  emery, 


282          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

applied  to  the  cutter,  so  as  to  keep  it  always  sharp.  Joseph 
Mann,  of  Raby,  in  1820,  took  the  important  step  of  gather- 
ing the  grain  when  duly  cut.  He  invented  rakes  which  re- 
volved on  a  vertical  axis  whose  teeth,  six  inches  long,  car- 
ried off  the  grain  in  swaths.  And  now,  says  Robert  L. 
Ardrey,  in  "  American  Agricultural  Implements,"  *  we  come 
to  the  most  original,  the  cleanest,  simplest,  and  greatest 
single  invention  ever  made  in  harvesting  machinery,  that  of 
Henry  Ogle,  a  schoolmaster  in  Rennington,  England,  in 
1822,  aided  by  Thomas  and  Joseph  Brown,  founders  at 
Alnwick,  near  by.  Ogle  says :  "  I  made  a  model,  but  not 
being  a  workman  myself,  and  being  on  very  friendly  terms 
with  Thomas  Brown,  a  founder,  and  his  son  Joseph,  I  pre- 
sented it  to  them."  Reciting  their  first  efforts,  which  were 
unsatisfactory,  he  continues  : 

"  They  then  made  the  teeth,  or  guards,  shorter,  and  tried 
it  again,  in  a  field  of  wheat.  It  then  cut  to  greater  perfec- 
tion, but  still  not  laying  the  grain  into  sheaves,  the  farmers 
did  not  think  that  I  lessened  the  expense  much.  Mr.  Brown 
took  it  home  again,  and  added  the  part  for  collecting  the 
grain  into  a  sheaf  (G,  G,  the  platform),  when  he  tried  it 
once  more  in  a  field  of  barley,  which  it  cut  down  into 
sheaves  remarkably  well.  Messrs.  Brown  then  advertised, 
at  the  beginning  of  1823,  that  they  would  furnish  machines 
complete  for  sheaving  grain.  But  farmers  hesitated  at  the 
expense,  and  some  working-people  at  last  threatened  to  kill 
Mr.  Brown  if  he  persevered  any  further,  and  it  has  never 
been  tried  more." 

From  the  cutting  it  did  it  was  estimated  to  have  an  aver- 
age capacity  of  fourteen  acres  per  day.  The  illustration 
shows  that  this  machine  had  the  elements  of  the  modern 
hand-raking  reaper  and  dropper.  It  was  drawn  from  the 
front  side ;  it  was  supported  on  two  driving-wheels,  and  had 
an  ordinary  reel.  It  had  a  projecting  bar  with  guard  teeth, 
and  a  grain  platform  attached  to  the  bar  and  behind  it. 

*  Published  by  the  author,  Chicago,  1894. 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK 


283 


A.D.J822. 
OGLE. 


P1XHI. 


3  D 


OGLE'S  REAPER,  1822 

A,  A,  wheels,  giving  motion  to  all  parts  of  reaper.  B,  B,  B, 
frame  ot  machine.  C,  C,  axle.  D,  D,  frame  of  knife.  E,  E,  knife. 
F,  F,  F,  F,  reel.  G,  G,  G,  G,  platform.  H,  H,  lever.  M,  center 
on  which  Y  turns.  Y,  rod  connecting  wheels  with  knife. 

[From  the  Mechanics'1  Magazine^  London,  1826.] 


284         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Hinged,  it  was  used  as  a  dropper ;  rigid,  the  grain  was  put 
off  in  gavels  to  one  side.  "  Its  frame  or  platform,  G,  G, 
when  hinged,"  said  Mr.  Ogle,  "  is  lifted  till  as  much  grain 
is  collected  as  will  be  a  sheaf,  and  let  fall  by  a  lever,  H,  H, 
over  a  fulcrum  upon  the  frame,  B,  B,  when  the  grain  slides 
off.  It  was  found,  however,  better  when  the  grain  was  put 
off  by  a  man  with  a  fork  toward  the  horse,  as  it  is  easier 
bound  and  leaves  the  stubble  clear  for  the  horse  to  go 
upon." 

From  the  position  of  the  lever  it  is  certain  that  a  seat  was 
provided  for  the  operator.  As  the  grain  "  was  put  off  by  a 
man  and  a  horse," — not  raked, — the  forker  probably  stood 
on  the  machine;  unquestionably  as  the  machine  was  made 
for  use  in  the  field,  it  had  a  grain-wheel,  or  shoe,  a  divider 
and  inside  gatherer,  as  these  had  been  previously  invented, 
described,  and  publicly  used.  It  doubtless  had  other  parts 
to  make  it  fully  practical,  for  in  closing  his  description,  Mr. 
Ogle  says :  "  I  have  given  only  a  part  of  the  framing,  as 
most  mechanics  have  their  own  way  of  fixing  the  main 
principle." 

Another  source  of  information  and  help  to  all  concerned 
arose  in  Scotland.  In  1826,  on  quite  independent  lines, 
Patrick  Bell,  afterward  a  Presbyterian  minister  at  Carmylie 
in  Argyllshire,  invented  a  reaper  with  a  row  of  clipping 
shears  as  cutters.  He  brought  it  before  the  Highland  and 
Agricultural  Society,  who  appointed  a  committee  to  ex- 
amine the  machine  at  work.  Their  report  was  favorable, 
so  the  Society  awarded  Mr.  Bell  fifty  pounds  as  a  premium 
for  his  invention,  a  model  being  placed  in  the  Society's 
museum.  Many  years  afterward,  in  1867,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Bell  gave  the  British  Association  at  Aberdeen  an  account 
of  his  invention.  The  principal  part  of  his  paper  appeared 
in  the  North  British  Agriculturist,  of  Edinburgh,  on  July 
10,  1907: 


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CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  285 

".  .  .  From  my  earliest  days  I  had  a  liking  and  turn  for 
the  study  and  practice  of  mechanics.  I  am  the  son  of  a 
farmer,  and  was  accustomed  from  my  early  youth  to  wit- 
ness all  the  operations  of  the  farm  performed,  and  in  most 
of  them  I  engaged  with  my  own  hands.  I  was  not  a  Pres- 
byterian minister  during  the  time  in  which  I  invented  the 
reaping  machine,  as  is  currently  stated,  but  an  alumnus  of 
one  of  our  national  Universities — the  University  of  St.  An- 
drews. A  farmer's  son,  in  my  days  at  least,  although  an 
academic,  would  not  have  been  allowed  to  study  undis- 
turbed in  his  sanctum,  and  was  liable,  especially  in  the 
harvest  season,  to  be  summoned  to  wield  the  fork  or  some 
other  implement  of  toil.  At  a  very  early  period  of  my  life  I 
was  most  painfully  struck  with  the  very  severe  nature  of  the 
toil  to  which  the  harvest  workers  were  subjected — a  toil 
made  doubly  oppressive  sometimes  by  the  heat  of  the 
weather,  and  always  by  the  very  awkward  position  in  which 
they  were  obliged  to  stoop  when  engaged  in  their  work. 
It  may  sound  as  an  empty  sentimentalism,  but  it  is  never- 
theless true,  that  a  desire  to  mitigate  such  excessive  toil  led 
me  to  inquire  whether  there  might  not  be  a  possibility  of 
transferring  part  of  it  at  least  to  beams  of  wood  and  bars 
of  iron,  supplemented  by  the  bones  and  sinews  of  the  horse. 
Sure  I  am  that  I  had  no  intention  of  taking  the  people's 
bread  from  them;  and  had  I  been  so  taunted  I  believe  that 
even  then  I  could  have  demonstrated  that  the  multiplica- 
tion and  employment  of  machinery  in  agricultural  work 
immediately  promotes  the  increase  of  the  people's  bread,  and 
does  not  ultimately  tend  to  diminish  the  means  of  the  peo- 
ple to  obtain  that  bread.  For  years  I  had  thought  of  the 
matter,  and  had  diligently  searched  for  some  principle; 
and,  taking  one  after  another,  I  duly  weighed  the  possi- 
bilities of  their  application  to  the  object  in  view,  and  aban- 
doned them  all  as  worthless. 

"  One  evening  after  tea,  while  walking  in  my  father's 
garden,  my  eyes  caught  a  pair  of  gardener's  shears  sticking 
in  the  hedge.  I  seized  them  by  the  handles,  which  pro- 
truded, and  I  proceeded  to  snap  at  the  twigs  of  the  thorns. 
My  mind  was  full  of  mechanics  at  the  time,  and  many  hours 
were  spent  in  my  workshop ;  and,  contemplating  the  shears 
attentively,  I  insensibly  said  to  myself,  Here  is  a  principle, 
and  is  there  any  reason  why  it  should  not  be  applied  to  the 


286          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

cutting  down  of  grain?     Not  altogether  satisfied  with  my 
performance  on  the  hedge,  I  brushed  through  it,  with  the 
shears  in  my  hand,  to  a  field  of  young  oats  adjoining,  and 
commenced  cutting  them  right  and  left.     It  was  well  that 
no  neighboring  gossip  saw  me  at  the  unwonted  employ- 
ment, else  the  rumor  might  have  been   readily  circulated 
that  the  poor  student  had  gone  crazed.     For  weeks,  and  for 
months,  by  night  and  by  day,   those   shears   were   upper- 
most in  my  thoughts,  and   I   searched  anxiously  and   in- 
defatigably  for  the  mode  in  which  they  should  be  employed. 
Plan  after  plan  presented  itself  to  me,  and  was  put  upon 
paper.     The  merits  of  each,  and  the  likelihood  of  its  suc- 
cess, were  carefully  scrutinized  and  pondered,  and  eventu- 
ally I  fixed  upon  the  plan,  now  successfully  in  operation. 
This  took  place  in  the  summer  of  1827.     The  next  step  was 
to  construct  a  model,  and  to  ascertain  how  thoughts  would 
look  when  transferred  to  steel  and  iron.     This  was  done, 
and  it  was  during  the  process  of  making  the  little  wooden 
frame  and  my  puny  cutters  that  the  idea  of  a  sloping  can- 
vas for  conveying  the  cut  grain  to  the  side  occurred  to  me. 
My  first  idea  was  to  place  the  canvas  level  with  the  ground, 
and  it  was  merely  because  it  was  more  conveniently  situ- 
ated in  the   model,   and   pleased   the   eye  better,   that   the 
angular  position  was  adopted,  so  that  in  reality  the  posi- 
tion and  the  angle  of  the  canvas  were  more  matters  of  ac- 
cident than  the  result  of  consideration.     Were  the   truth 
always  known,   I   believe  that  much  more   important  im- 
provements in  mechanical  science  would  be  found  to  have 
a  similar  origin.     Having  finished  my  model  and  speculated 
as  accurately  and  deeply  as  I  was  able  upon  the  possibilities 
and  probabilities  of  the  actual  results,  I  determined  to  have 
a  machine  constructed  upon  the  large  scale.     For  this  pur- 
pose I  had  to  pass  out  of  my  character  of  inventor  into  that 
of  engineer  and  workman.     The  plan  I  took  was  this.  After 
making  my  calculations  as  to  size,  etc.,  I  joined  a  quantity 
of  rough  sticks  together,  and  called  them  a  frame.     Then 
I  made  cutters  of  wood  of  every  part  that  required  to  be 
made  of  iron  and  steel.     I  sent  these,  piece  by  piece,  as  I 
required  them,  to  the  blacksmith,  with  the  instructions  to 
make  a  thing  of  iron  as  like  the  wooden  ones  sent  as  possible. 
When  I  got  a  few  of  the  pieces  from  the  smith,  I  finished 
them  with  the  file,  and  secured  each  to  its  proper  place.     I 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  287 

remember  the  cutters  gave  me  a  world  of  trouble  and  vex- 
ation. When  they  came  into  my  hands  they  were  in  a  very 
rude  state,  and  required  much  filing,  grinding,  and  fitting. 
By  dint  of  patient  application  I  got  the  whole  into  a  suf- 
ficiently perfect  state,  as  I  thought,  for  trial. 

"  It  may  amuse  you,  perhaps,  if  I  give  you  some  account 
of  the  first  field  I  cut.  That  you  may  understand  this, 
imagine  an  empty  outhouse,  rather  long  and  narrow,  hav- 
ing in  one  end  a  wright's  bench,  and  in  the  other  a  rude- 
looking  piece  of  mechanism,  an  embryo  reaping  machine. 
For  my  subsequent  operations  I  chose  a  quiet  day,  that  is,  a 
day  when  there  were  few  people  about  the  place.  On  that 
day  an  eavesdropper  might  have  seen  me  busily  but  stealth- 
ily engaged  in  conveying  earth  in  a  common  wheelbarrow 
into  the  workshop.  When  the  place  between  the  bench  and 
the  rude  but  ambitious  candidate  for  the  honors  of  the 
harvest  field  was  covered  to  the  depth  of  some  six  inches,  I 
proceeded  to  compress  the  •  loose  mold  with  my  feet.  I 
next  went  to  an  old  stack  that  happened  to  be  in  the  barn- 
yard, and,  drawing  a  sheaf  of  oats  out  of  it,  and  carrying 
it  to  the  workshop,  I  planted  it  stalk  by  stalk  at  about  the 
same  thickness  I  knew  it  would  have  grown  in  the  field. 
This  done,  I  shut  and  barred  the  door,  and  then,  going  be- 
hind the  machine,  I  pushed  it  forward  with  all  my  might 
through  my  planted  oats.  As  soon  as  I  recovered  my 
breath,  I  anxiously  examined  how  the  work  had  been  done. 
I  found  that  it  had  been  all  very  well  cut,  but  was  lying 
'higgledy-piggledy,  in  such  a  mess  as  would  have  utterly  dis- 
graced me  in  the  harvest  field.  Upon  the  whole,  however, 
I  was  not  discouraged,  but  rather  encouraged  by  this  first 
experiment.  The  cutting  was  perfect,  and  that  was  the  first 
great  point  I  then  aimed  at. 

"Although  by  this  experiment  I  had  proved  my  new  in- 
vention to  be  a  cutting  machine,  it  certainly  little  deserved 
to  be  dignified  with  the  name  of  reaping  machine,  and  yet  it 
was  a  reaping  machine  I  had  set  my  heart  upon  constructing. 
Had  I  at  this  stage  been  content  to  summon  a  man  with  a 
rake  to  do  the  work  of  wheels  and  pinions,  my  machine  was 
complete;  and  had  I  been  contented  with  a  combination,  I 
would  have  saved  myself  a  host  of  trouble,  and  what  to  me 
at  the  time  was  no  small  expenditure  of  money.  My  work- 
shop was  again  speedily  cleared  of  earth  and  loam,  and  made 


288          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

ready  for  the  jack-plane  and  piles.  I  proceeded  forthwith 
to  put  the  canvas  in  order.  One  might  naturally  suppose 
that  this  would  be  an  easy  matter,  but  I  did  not  find  it  so. 
After  the  rollers  were  put  in  position,  the  wheels  for  driving 
them  adjusted,  and  the  canvas  stretched  and  fixed  upon 
the  rollers  the  proper  tightness,  I  conceived  in  my  simplicity 
that  the  work  was  done,  and  my  object  secured.  The  result 
was  otherwise;  for,  on  pushing  the  machine  forward  only 
the  length  of  the  house,  I  found  that  it  twisted,  and  would 
have  been  torn  in  pieces  if  it  had  proceeded  many  yards 
forward.  I  proceeded  now  to  make  grooves  at  the  end  of 
the  rollers,  in  which  I  placed  a  small  rope.  To  these  ropes, 
one  at  the  top  and  the  other  at  the  bottom  of  the  rollers,  I 
sewed  the  canvas,  expecting  that  the  ropes  and  canvas 
would  move  together  in  uniformity,  and  that  my  object 
would  thus  be  obtained;  but,  upon  trial,  I  was  a  second 
time  disappointed.  The  ropes,  from  inequality  in  the 
grooves,  moved  irregularly,  and  the  canvas  became  twisted 
as  before.  For  a  time  I  was  nonplused  and  dispirited,  but, 
plucking  up  courage,  and  ruminating  over  mechanical  ap- 
pliances, I  thought  of  the  pitched  chains.  Having  made 
some  six  inches  of  such  a  chain  out  of  a  piece  of  old  iron 
hoop,  I  sent  the  same  as  a  pattern  to  the  blacksmith,  with  an 
order  to  make  for  me  so  many  feet  of  chain  like  the  model 
sent.  Having  received  the  chains,  and  put  them  in  their 
place,  the  canvas  was  speedily  attached,  and  the  machine 
was  prepared  to  meet  the  third  trial  of  its  construction 
which  had  now  been  made.  The  wheelbarrow  was  again  in 
requisition,  and  another  visit  made  to  the  old  stack  in  the 
barnyard,  and  the  process  of  dibbling  another  sheaf  gone 
through.  The  door  was  again  shut,  and,  palpitating  with 
expectation,  I  pushed  the  machine  forward.  To  my  un- 
speakable satisfaction  the  oats  were  not  only  nicely  cut,  but 
were  lying  almost  unanimously  by  the  side  of  the  machine 
in  one  even  continuous  row,  as  I  had  confidently  expected. 
You  may  smile,  but  I  complimented  myself  sensibly,  I  think, 
on  my  success,  being  convinced  that  I  had  converted  the  im- 
plement from  a  cutting  to  a  reaping  machine.  All  this  took 
place  in  1828.  Until  the  crops  were  ripe  nothing  more 
could  be  done.  I  was  in  high  excitement  and  hope,  and  I 
waited  patiently  for  the  ripening  of  the  grain.  In  the  mean- 
time I  revolved  in  my  mind,  with  anxious  and  provident 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  289 

hope,  everything  that  was  likely  to  happen  when  the  actual 
trial  in  the  open  field  should  come  to  be  made.  I  was  fear- 
ful that  there  should  happen  to  me  what  I  knew  had  hap- 
pened to  many  an  experimenter  before  who  performs  his 
experience  to  a  wish  in  the  laboratory  or  workshop,  but 
who  utterly  fails  when  he  actually  adjourns  to  the  actual  do- 
main of  nature  or  art.  I  had  observed  in  my  experiment 
upon  the  pigmy  and  artificial  field  in  the  workshop  that 
while  the  oats  upon  the  whole  came  to  the  canvas,  and 
were  regularly  removed  to  its  side,  nevertheless  some 
seeds  straggled  away  capriciously  in  different  and  adverse 
directions.  And  yet  I  could  not  forget  that  in  the  work- 
shop all  was  calm,  and  that  I  had  the  elements  greatly  un- 
der my  own  control,  but  that  in  the  open  field  the  blowing 
wind  might  multiply  the  capricious  stragglers  and  fan  the 
flame  of  disunion,  and  damage  the  success  of  the  operation. 
It  was  an  anticipation  of  this  kind  that  induced  me  to  think 
of  the  reel  or  collector.  Having  plenty  of  time  before  har- 
vest, I  constructed  this  part  of  the  implement,  and  laid  it 
past,  to  be  used  or  not  as  the  emergencies  of  the  field  might 
require. 

"  The  period  now  approached  that  was  to  decide  the 
merits  of  the  machine.  That  night  I  will  never  forget. 
Before  the  corn  was  perfectly  ripe  (I  had  not  patience  to 
wait  for  that),  a  young  brother  of  mine  and  I  resolved  to 
have  a  quiet  and  unobserved  start  by  ourselves.  That  could 
not  be  got  while  the  sun  was  in  the  heavens,  nor  for  a  con- 
siderable time  after  he  was  set;  and,  accordingly,  about 
eleven  o'clock  at  night,  in  a  dark  autumn  evening,  when- 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  were  in  their  beds,  the  ma- 
chine was  quietly  taken  from  its  quarters,  and  the  good 
horse  Jock  was  yoked  to  it,  and  we  trio  wended  our  way 
through  a  field  of  lea  to  one  of  standing  wheat  beyond  it, — 
my  brother  and  I  the  meanwhile  speaking  to  one  another  in 
whispers.  We  reached  our  destination,  and  the  machine 
was  put  in  position  right  in  the  end  of  a  ridge.  My  duty 
was  to  look  ahead,  and  my  brother's  to  guide  the  horse.  I 
gave  the  word  of  command  to  go  on,  and  on  the  implement 
went;  but  it  had  not  proceeded  above  five  or  six  yards 
when  I  called  upon  my  brother  to  stop.  Upon  examining 
the  work  we  found  it  far  from  satisfactory.  The  wheat 
was  well  enough  cut,  but  it  was  lying  in  a  bundle  before  the 


290          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

machine.  For  a  moment  we  were  both  downcast ;  but, 
recollecting  myself,  I  had  yet  great  hope,  and  said  so,  the 
whole  of  the  machine  not  being  used,  the  reel  or  collector 
having  been  left  behind.  I  ran  across  the  field  and  brought 
the  reel,  and  everything  connected  with  it,  upon  my  shoul- 
ders, and  adjusted  it  as  well  as  the  darkness  of  the  night 
would  permit,  and  we  were  soon  ready  for  a  second  start. 
Taking  our  positions  respectively  as  before,  the  machine 
moved  forward,  and  now  all  was  right.  The  wheat  was 
lying  by  the  side  of  the  machine  as  prettily  as  any  that  has 
been  ever  cut  by  it  since.  After  this  we  merely  took  it 
back  again  to  the  end  of  the  ridge,  and  made  a  cut  with  the 
open  edge  to  ascertain  how  the  swathes  would  lie  upon  the 
stubble,  with  which  being  well  pleased,  we,  after  some  par- 
donable congratulations,  moved  the  machine  back  to  its  old 
quarters  as  quickly  and  quietly  as  possible." 

In  Loudon's  "  Cyclopedia  of  Agriculture,"  published  in 
London  in  1831,  the  Bell  reaper  was  depicted  and  described 
with  the  utmost  clearness.  Similar  machines  were  also  pre- 
sented, but  not  with  the  same  fulness,  because  of  much 
less  promise.  At  that  time  Great  Britain  far  surpassed 
America  in  her  forges,  foundries,  and  machine  shops,  turn- 
ing out  models  incomparably  better.  Hence  it  was  that  in 
America  the  builders  of  reapers,  as  well  as  the  builders  of 
steam  engines,  locomotives,  and  looms,  at  first  did  little  else 
than  copy  British  designs.  The  earliest  American  patent 
for  a  reaper  having  a  vibrating  cutter  was  granted  on  May 
3,  1831,  to  William  Manning,  of  Plainfield,  New  Jersey.  As 
we  shall  see,  the  patents  to  Cyrus  Hall  McCormick  and  to 
his  chief  rival,  Obed  Hussey,  were  issued  respectively  two 
and  three  years  later. 

When  the  Bell  machine  underwent  its  original  test,  James 
Slight  was  curator  of  the  Highland  and  Agricultural  So- 
ciety, under  whose  auspices  the  test  took  place.  In  its 
"Transactions,"  published  in  1852  in  Edinburgh,  he  said: 
"  This  reaper  soon  worked  its  way  to  a  considerable  suc- 
cess in  Forfarshire.  In  the  harvest  of  1834  I  saw  several 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK 


291 


sifei  ! 


1 


<  CQ 


81 


292          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

of  them  at  work,  all  giving  satisfaction.  They  were  manu- 
factured in  Dundee,  and  thence  found  their  way  throughout 
the  country.  Four  of  them  went  to  the  United  States  of 
America.  This  renders  it  highly  probable  that  they  became 
the  models  from  which  the  many  so-called  inventions  of  the 
American  reaper  have  since  sprung.  At  the  Exhibition  held 
in  New  York,  in  1851,  six  reapers  were  shown,  each  claim- 
ing to  be  an  original  invention.  Yet  in  all  of  them  the  prin- 
cipal feature,  the  cutting  apparatus,  bears  the  strongest  evi- 
dence of  having  been  copied  from  Bell's  machine.  There 
are  slight  variations,  as  might  naturally  be  expected,  in  the 
cutters,  but  the  original  Bell  type  is  evident  throughout.  It 
is  remarkable,  too,  that  in  Hussey's  reaper,  which  appears 


HUSSEY'S  HARVESTER- FINGER 

to  have  been  brought  out  first  in  the  Union,  there  is  the 
closest  possible  resemblance  to  the  Bell  reaper." 

"  In  a  few  cases,"  says  Mr.  Slight,  in  these  pages  of  1852, 
"the  Bell  reaper  has  been  kept  in  operation  up  to  the  present 
time.  One  of  the  most  interesting  of  these  cases  is  that  of 
George  Bell,  of  Inch-Michael  in  the  Carse  of  Cowrie,  a 
brother  of  the  inventor.  Mr.  Bell  has  a  strong  natural  bias 
toward  mechanics,  and  during  fourteen  years  in  which  he 
has  regularly  worked  his  reaper  he  has  taken  particular 
pleasure  in  seeing  it  put  in  proper  working  order  at  the 
commencement  of  the  harvest ;  so  prepared,  it  is  then  man- 
aged with  perfect  success  by  any  plowman  of  ordinary  in- 
telligence. By  these  simple  precautions  Mr.  Bell  has  been 
enabled  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner  to  reap  on  an  aver- 
age four-fifths  of  all  his  grain  crops  every  year;  the  re- 
maining fifth,  more  or  less,  according  to  the  season,  being 
too  much  laid  for  the  machine,  has  been  reaped  by  the 
scythe.  The  expense  of  machine-reaping  has  in  this  case 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  293 

been  found  not  to  exceed  3  shillings  and  6  pence  (85  cents) 
per  imperial  acre.  Under  these  favorable  views  of  the  ef- 
ficiency and  economy  of  Bell's  reaper,  a  question  naturally 
arises,  What  has  been  the  cause  of  such  a  machine  falling 
so  much  into  disuse?  One  obvious  reason  is  that  all  the 
best  reaping  machines  herein  referred  to  may  very  appropri- 
ately be  said  to  have  appeared  before  their  time — that  is  to 
say,  before  the  soil  on  which  they  were  to  act  had  been 
prepared  for  their  reception.  In  the  first  quarter  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  furrow  draining,  leveling  high  ridges,  and 
filling  up  the  old  intervening  furrows,  were  only  beginning 
to  assume  their  due  prominence  in  the  practice  of  agricul- 
ture. So  long  as  these  improvements  remained  in  abey- 
ance, the  surface  of  the  land  was  ill  suited  for  such  opera- 
tions as  those  of  a  reaping  machine.  Hence  serious  ob- 
stacles presented  themselves;  as  these  are  fast  being  re- 
moved, there  is  a  prospect  of  a  more  successful  application 
of  machinery  of  all  kinds  being  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
the  operations  of  the  farm. 

"  In  the  process  of  working  this  machine,  Mr.  Bell's 
practice  is  to  employ  one  man  to  drive  and  conduct  the  ma- 
chine; eight  women  are  required  to  collect  the  cut  grain 
into  sheaves  and  make  bands  for  them;  four  men  to  close 
and  bind  the  sheaves,  and  two  men  to  set  them  up  in  stocks 
— in  all  fourteen  pairs  of  hands,  besides  the  driver,  will 
traverse  12  imperial  acres  per  day.  .  .  . 

"  McCormick's  machine,  which  on  its  first  appearance  in 
England  had  its  cutters  nearly  identical  with  those  of  Bell, 
has  latterly  been  fitted  with  one  long  straight-edged  and 
finely  serrated  cutter,  giving,  apparently,  a  new  character  to 
the  machine,  though,  in  fact,  it  is  no  more  than  engrafting 
a  new  idea  upon  the  original  Bell  machine.  Mr.  McCor- 
mick  has  also  gone  a  step  beyond  his  neighbor,  Mr.  Hus- 
sey,  by  taking  from  our  original  also  the  revolving  vanes 
[reel]  in  front  for  collecting  and  holding  the  grain  to  the 
cutter.  By  these  means  the  machine  is  made  more  effective, 
and  operates  with  the  assistance  of  but  one  man  upon  the 
machine  besides  the  driver." 

Nearly  twenty  years  after  Mr.  Slight  thus  discussed 
the  indebtedness  of  McCormick  to  the  Rev.  Patrick  Bell, 


294         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

the  friends  of  that  inventor  bestirred  themselves,  though 
tardily,  to  do  him  honor.  In  January,  1868,  the  Highland 
and  Agricultural  Society  in  Edinburgh  presented  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Bell  with  one  thousand  pounds  sterling  subscribed  by 
his  friends  and  admirers  throughout  the  United  Kingdom. 
In  acknowledgment,  the  inventor  said: 

"  My  feelings  are  very  different  this  day  from  what 
they  were  forty  years  ago — when  I  left  my  father's  house 
on  a  cold  winter  morning,  and  took  my  seat  upon  the  top  of 
the  Edinburgh  coach,  for  the  purpose  of  making  my  first 
bow  to  this  honorable  Society.  On  that  occasion  I  was  full 
of  fears  and  trembling,  afraid  that  my  invention  would  turn 
out  a  mere  chimera,  arid  trembling  when  I  thought  of  com- 
ing before  learned  and  scientific  men.  I  had  a  small  wooden 
model  of  the  machine  under  my  arm,  which  looked  like 
anything  rather  than  a  design  for  cutting  grain.  As  my 
friends  advised  me  before  I  started,  I  waited  upon  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Society,  Sir  Charles  Gordon,  to  hear  what  he 
would  say  about  it.  Sir  Charles  examined  my  model  at- 
tentively, declared  he  was  no  mechanic,  and,  consequently, 
would  give  no  opinion  upon  the  matter,  but  added,  he  would 
be  glad  to  introduce  me  to  a  celebrated  mechanic  who  lived 
in  the  town,  Sir  John  Graham  Dalyell.  I  went,  accord- 
ingly, to  Sir  John's  house,  and  explained  my  model  to  him, — 
it  looked  more  like  a  rat-trap  than  anything  else  I  know  of. 
Sir  John  looked  at  it,  and  said  it  was  a  very  difficult  thing 
to  give  a  decided  opinion  upon  the  model  of  any  contrivance 
that  would  be  able  to  cut  a  standing  crop  of  grain  in  an 
efficient  manner.  But,  so  far  as  he  was  able  to  judge,  the 
model  looked  like  a  thing  that  would  do  so,  and  he  recom- 
mended me  to  get  a  machine  constructed  upon  a  large  scale 
after  the  pattern  of  my  model,  and  try  it  next  harvest. 
This  was  the  first  encouragement  to  prosecute  my  idea  that  I 
had  received.  The  horizon  of  my  imaginings  grew  brighter, 
and  I  was  able  to  speak,  even  to  Sir  John,  in  more  confident 
terms.  When  I  got  home  a  large  machine  was  immediately 
set  about  being  constructed ;  it  was  finished  before  harvest, 
started  amongst  the  standing  grain  before  it  was  ripe,  and  it 
worked  very  well,  and  I  was  obliged  to  Sir  John  for  the 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  295 

friendly  advice  he  gave  me.     Had  he  condemned  the  prin- 
ciple of  my  reaper,  it  might  never  have  gone  a  step  further." 

McCormick  always  kept  his  lips  firmly  closed  as  to  the 
sources  of  his  successive  models.  Whatever  they  were,  he 
gave  them  diligent  study,  careful  experiment,  and  such 
changes  in  detail  as  work  in  the  field  demanded.  He  built 
his  first  machine,  he  tells  us,  in  1831,  testing  and  improving 
it  for  nearly  three  years.  Only  on  June  21,  1834,  did  he 
obtain  a  patent, — the  first  in  a  long  series  covering  his 


McCoRMiCK  REAPER,  1834 

[From  "Who  Invented  the  Reaper?"  by  R.  B.  Swift,  Chicago,  McCormick 
Harvesting  Machine  Co.,  1897.] 

reaper  in  its  later  developments.  Almost  incredibly  loose 
was  the  management  of  the  Patent  Office  in  the  early  dec- 
ades of  the  nineteenth  century.  "  At  that  time,"  said  Ed- 
mund Burke,  Commissioner  in  1852,  "  the  Patent  Office 
made  no  examination  upon  the  points  of  originality  and 
priority  of  invention,  but  granted  all  patents  applied  for, 
as  a  matter  of  course."  As  already  stated,  a  reaper  with  a 
vibrating  cutter,  plainly  of  British  origin,  was  patented  by 
William  Manning,  of  Plainfield,  New  Jersey,  on  May  3, 
1831.  A  cutter,  much  the  same,  was  patented  by  Obed  Hus- 
sey  on  December  31,  1833.  On  June  21,  1834,  McCor- 
mick's  first  patent  was  issued,  including  a  vibrating  cutter. 


296          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

That  Manning's  claim  was  prior  to  that  of  Hussey,  and  of 
McCormick,  was  promptly  pointed  out  in  the  Journal  of  the 
Franklin  Institute,  Philadelphia.*  Manning,  for  some  un- 
recorded reason,  dropped  out  of  the  running  and  was  heard 
from  no  more.  Hussey,  who  proved  to  be  an  inventor  of 
mark,  remained  in  the  field,  and  for  many  years  stoutly  op- 
posed McCormick.  His  improvements  survive  to  this  day. 

A  few  months  before  the  issue  of  his  patent,  McCormick 
offered  reapers  at  thirty  dollars  each  in  the  columns  of  the 
Union,  of  Lexington,  Virginia.  Thus  early  did  he  show 
his  ability  as  an  advertiser:  his  offer  was  supplemented  by 
four  testimonials  from  neighboring  farmers  who  had  used 
the  machine  with  success.  Next  year,  1834,  the  attention 
of  the  McCormicks,  father  and  son,  was  withdrawn  from 
reapers  and  riveted  upon  a  smelting  enterprise.  In  part- 
nership with  John  Black,  they  bought  the  Cotopaxi  Fur- 
nace on  the  South  River,  about  two  miles  from  their  home- 
stead. Robert  McCormick  supplied  nearly  all  the  capital 
invested,  opening  an  account  for  the  firm  with  a  leading 
bank  in  Richmond.  The  business  proved  a  failure,  and  the 
panic  of  1837  dealt  it  a  mortal  blow.  Black  withdrew  from 
the  bank  all  the  cash  there  deposited,  about  $12,000  in  all, 
and  put  his  property  beyond  the  grasp  of  his  creditors. 
Robert  McCormick  lost  about  $18,000  in  this  venture, 
which  threatened  him  with  bankruptcy.  His  lawyer  sug- 
gested that  he  divest  himself  of  his  farms,  to  evade  pressing 
claims.  "  No,"  said  he,  "  I  would  rather  die  and  leave  my 
children  without  a  cent,  than  that  it  should  ever  be  said  that 
their  father  had  been  a  dishonest  man !  "  Eventually,  by 
dint  of  hard  work  and  close  economy,  he  paid  off  every 
dollar  of  his  debts,  as  became  a  man  of  scrupulous  honor. 

When  the  Cotopaxi  Furnace,  empty  and  cold,  had  become 

*  Manning's  patent  is  briefly  described  in  \ht  Journal  of  the  Frank' 
lin  Institute,  Vol.  VIII.:  p.  195.  1831.  Hussey's  is  given,  Vol.  XIV.: 
P.  37.  1834;  and  McCormick's,  Vol.  XV.:  p.  44,  1835. 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  297 

dusty  with  neglect,  Cyrus  McCormick  reverted  to  his  reaper, 
which  he  felt  might  lift  him  out  of  his  financial  slough. 
First  of  all,  he  must  bring  the  machine  before  the  public. 
In  the  fall  of  1839,  accordingly,  on  the  farm  of  Joshua 
Smith,  near  Staunton,  Virginia,  he  gave  the  first  of  many 
thousand  public  exhibitions.  With  two  men  and  a  team  of 
horses  he  cut  wheat  at  the  rate  of  two  acres  an  hour.  Won- 
derful !  There  was  loud  applause  and  no  buying.  Why  ? 

Farm  tools  in  that  day  were  few  and  simple,  so  that  they 
could  be  easily  made  by  a  country  blacksmith  and  kept  in 
repair  at  home.  It  was  plain  that  McCormick's  reaper  did 
the  work  of  ten  men,  but  its  intricate  mechanism  was  guided 
by  a  dexterous  man,  familiar  for  months  with  its  cogs, 
levers,  and  blades.  Onlookers  said  with  united  breath :  "  It 
is  a  marvel,  sure  enough,  but  we  are  running  farms  and  not 
circuses."  McCormick  had  to  wait  until  1840  for  his  first 
customer,  Abraham  Smith,  of  Egypt,  in  Rockingham 
County,  Virginia,  who  had  seen  the  reaper  at  work  near 
Staunton.  He  highly  resolved  to  part  with  thirty  dollars 
and  take  home  a  machine.  In  1841,  the  next  year,  Mc- 
Cormick did  not  effect  a  single  sale,  so  he  took  occasion  to 
improve  the  build  of  his  reaper.  He  was  now  convinced 
that  he  had  a  machine  which  deserved  a  market,  and  that 
market  he  was  determined  to  create  there  and  then.  Forti- 
fied with  an  indorsement  from  Abraham  Smith,  he  decided 
on  $100  as  his  price,  and  became  a  salesman  at  that  figure. 
By  dint  of  a  persistence  that  never  took  no  for  an  answer, 
he  sold  seven  reapers  in  1842,  twenty-nine  in  1843,  and  fifty 
in  1844.  Thus,  after  thirteen  years  of  struggle  and  defeat, 
he  came  to  victory.  It  was  now  time  to  relinquish  farming 
for  good  and  all,  and  restrict  himself  to  manufacturing  and 
selling  his  reaper.  Instead  of  tilling  one  farm,  he  was  to 
take  a  hand  in  reaping  a  million  farms  the  world  over. 

His  beginnings  were  slow.  But  soon  from  the  West 
came  messages  of  cheer, — orders  in  quick  succession  for 


298          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

seven  reapers.  Two  farmers  in  Tennessee,  one  each  in  Wis- 
consin, Missouri,  Iowa,  Illinois,  and  Ohio,  wanted  ma- 
chines. McCormick  now  clearly  saw  that  his  farmstead 
was  not  the  place  for  a  reaper  factory.  It  was  too  far  East, 
for  one  reason.  Through  delays  in  transit  four  of  the  seven 
ordered  reapers  arrived  too  late  for  that  season's  harvest. 
A  friend  said  to  him :  "  Cyrus,  why  don't  you  go  West  with 
your  reaper,  where  land  is  level  and  labor  scarce  ?  "  His 
mind  was  ripe  for  that  golden  hint.  His  reaper  should 
henceforth  be  built  and  sold  in  the  West,  where  it  was 
most  needed.  One  morning,  soon  afterward,  he  put  three 
hundred  dollars  into  his  belt  and  set  out  on  a  jaunt  of 
three  thousand  miles.  He  went  by  stage  through  Pennsyl- 
vania to  Lake  Erie,  thence  to  the  leading  ports  of  Lake 
Ontario.  Next  he  proceeded  through  Ohio,  Michigan,  Illi- 
nois, Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  Missouri,  shrewdly  comparing 
town  with  town,  port  with  port,  State  with  State.  He  now 
saw  prairies  for  the  first  time,  so  flat  and  fertile  that  they 
seemed  to  have  been  specially  created  to  give  play  to  his 
reaper.  The  fields  visibly  beckoned  for  machinery  faster 
than  the  scythes  and  sickles  imported  from  Eastern  hills 
and  dales.  Virginia,  with  her  rolling,  irregular  land,  might 
possibly  be  persuaded  to  use  the  reaper ;  the  West,  smooth, 
treeless,  and  stoneless,  simply  must  have  the  reaper  at 
once.  As  McCormick  drove  through  Illinois  he  saw  hogs 
and  cattle  feeding  on  broad  stretches  of  ripe  grain,  because 
laborers  were  lacking  for  scythes  and  cradles.  Illinois 
that  year  grew  five  million  bushels  of  wheat,  vastly  more 
than  her  farmhands  could  cut.  The  shortness  of  time  for 
harvesting,  but  four  to  ten  days,  offered  McCormick  his 
supreme  opportunity.  His  rapid  machine,  forestalling  bad 
weather,  would  save  millions  of  bushels  which  otherwise 
would  rot  on  the  ground. 

McCormick   returned   home   with  broadened  views  and 
quickened  pulse.     He  would  forthwith  patent  his  reaper  in 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  299 

an  improved  design,  and  press  its  sale  far  and  wide,  espe- 
cially in  the  prairie  country  he  had  just  explored.  His 
drawings  and  specifications  were  soon  in  his  satchel,  for 
he  was  always  the  soul  of  despatch,  and  the  next  week  found 
him  in  Washington,  where  his  second  patent  was  granted 
on  January  31,  1845.  McCormick's  reaper,  as  now  im- 
proved, had  its  blade  serrated  like  a  sickle,  with  the  angle 
reversed  at  each  alternate  tooth ;  the  blade  had  its  sup- 
porters screwed  on  the  front  of  the  platform,  bent  in  such 
wise  as  to  let  straw  freely  escape.  The  fingers,  or  guards, 
to  hold  the  grain  while  being  cut,  were  spear-shaped.  The 
lower  end  of  his  reel  post  was  placed  behind  the  blade,  and 
curved  forward  at  its  top,  where  it  was  securely  braced. 

McCormick,  while  in  Washington,  not  only  obtained  a 
patent  for  distinct  and  important  improvements  on  his 
reaper,  he  took  a  long  stride  toward  success  as  a  manu- 
facturer. Among  the  public  men  whom  he  met  at  the 
capital  was  the  Honorable  E.  B.  Holmes,  of  BrocEport, 
New  York,  who  told  him  that  Seymour  &  Morgan  had  just 
established  in  Brockport  a  factory  of  farm  implements, 
where  reapers  of  good  quality  could  be  produced  at  low 
cost.  He  pointed  out  that  Brockport  was  halfway  betwixt 
the  Eastern  and  Western  markets,  which  McCormick  was 
about  to  invade.  McCormick  at  once  proceeded  to  Brock- 
port.  Says  Robert  L.  Ardrey,  in  "  American  Agricultural 
Implements  " : 

'  The  machine  McCormick  brought  with  him  was  very 
crude.  There  was  no  driver's  seat,  and  the  man  who 
raked  off  walked  alongside  the  platform.  The  gearing  was 
imperfect,  and  the  sickle  was  but  a  thin,  straight  strip 
of  steel,  on  the  front  edge  serrated  reversely  every  four  or 
five  inches  of  its  length,  and  liable  to  be  clogged  at  the 
slightest  provocation.  Yet,  though  so  coarse,  immature, 
and  imperfect,  it  was  a  machine  with  which  it  was  possible 
to  cut  grain  when  all  the  conditions  were  favorable.  Trials 
suggested  improvements.  It  was  cut  down  a  little  here, 


300         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  301 

strengthened  a  little  there,  and  generally  brought  into  better 
form.  The  raker  sat  astride  a  saddle  provided  for  him  in 
the  rear  of  the  gearing,  and  used  an  ordinary  hand-rake, 
but  the  driver  rode  a  horse,  or  walked,  for  still  there  was  no 
seat.  It  was  arranged  that  Seymour  &  Morgan  build  a 
quantity  of  McCormick  reapers,  as  improved,  for  the  fol- 
lowing season's  harvest.  Accordingly,  for  the  harvest  of 
1846,  one  hundred  of  these  machines  were  made  and  sold, 
the  first  large  quantity  of  reapers  ever  manufactured.  As 
an  example  of  the  primitive  methods  then  usual,  a  portion 
of  the  spear-shaped  guard-fingers  of  these  machines  were 
let  out  to  country  blacksmiths,  to  be  forged  at  24  cents 
each,  as  well  as  the  machine  bolts  at  4^  cents.  For  each 
piece  the  iron,  cut  in  proper  lengths,  was  furnished  by 
Seymour  &  Morgan.  Next  year,  by  using  swages,  the 
guard-fingers  were  made  at  their  shops  for  less  than  half 
the  price  paid  to  blacksmiths.  A  little  later  they  were  made 
of  cast-iron.  In  1848,  the  original  McCormick  patent  ex- 
pired, and  the  manufacture  of  McCormick  reapers  ceased  at 
the  Brockport  factory." 

On  October  23,  1847,  shortly  before  he  ceased  to  have 
his  reapers  produced  in  Brockport,  McCormick  obtained  a 
third  patent.  It  included  for  the  first  time  a  seat  for  the 
raker ;  such  a  seat  had  been  provided  by  Hussey  on  his  ma- 
chine as  far  back  as  1833,  and  in  all  likelihood  it  appeared  in 
Ogle's  reaper  of  1822.  To  balance  this  seat  and  its  oc- 
cupant, McCormick  now  placed  his  driving-wheel  further 
back  than  in  his  former  machines,  rearranging  the  gearing 
with  a  new  compactness. 

McCormick  sagaciously  noted  that  the  railroads  were 
fast  stretching  westward,  and  his  keen  gaze  saw  .the  broad 
zones  of  arable  land  thus  brought  within  the  swing  of  his 
reaper.  He  felt  that  the  time  had  come  to  build  machines 
in  a  factory  of  his  own.  But  where?  Its  site  should  be 
at  the  center  of  these  rich  prairies,  preferably  at  a  port  on 
a  great  lake.  With  painstaking  diligence  he  studied  a 
map  of  the  Western  States,  and  ended  by  placing  his  fore- 


302          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

finger  on  Chicago,  then  a  raw  town  of  about  10,000  popula- 
tion. This  choice  was  one  of  the  master  strokes  of  his 
career.  At  that  time  Milwaukee,  Cleveland,  and  St.  Louis 
were  more  thriving  than  Chicago,  but  to  this  discerning 
judge  they  were  cities  of  less  promise.  He  saw  that  Chi- 
cago, for  all  its  mud  and  shabbiness,  stood  at  the  very  focus 
of  Western  trade.  Here  he  could  best  assemble  steel  and 
iron  from  Scotland  and  Pennsylvania,  and  lumber  from  the 
forests  of  Michigan,  and  hence  he  could  ship  his  bulky  ma- 
chines, eastward  or  westward,  at  minimum  charges  for 
freight. 

When  McCormick  voted  for  Chicago,  he  did  so  with 
empty  hands.  It  behooved  him  to  cast  about  for  a  backer 
who  would  advance  capital  for  the  execution  of  his  projects. 
He  found  him  in  William  B.  Ogden,  *who  had  been  the  first 
mayor  of  the  city,  and  was  still  its  civic  leader  and  arbiter. 
Said  he  to  the  Virginian :  "  You  are  the  man  we  want.  I 
will  give  you  $25,000  for  a  half-interest  in  this  reaper  busi- 
ness. Let  us  build  the  factory  at  once."  Thereupon  the 
firm  of  McCormick,  Ogden  &  Company  was  born,  soon  to 
rear  its  premises  on  the  site  where,  in  1804,  Jonn  Kinzie 
had  built  the  first  house  in  Chicago.  Here  five  hundred 
reapers  were  manufactured  for  the  harvest  of  1848,  and  the 
business  fast  prophesied  the  stupendous  expansions  since 
recorded.  But  if  two  men  ride  a  horse,  one  must  ride  be- 
hind. Neither  McCormick  nor  Ogden  could  long  occupy 
a  back  seat,  for  both  men  by  temper  and  habit  were  im- 
perious and  unyielding.  In  1849  their  partnership  came 
to  an  end,  McCormick  paying  Ogden  $25,000  for  profits  and 
interest. 

McCormick  soon  realized  that  his  business  was  to  take 
on  dimensions  which  would  forbid  his  handling  anything 
more  than  the  rudder.  He  thereafter  confined  himself  to 
sketching  the  broad  outlines  of  his  campaigns,  committing 
the  details  to  his  brothers,  Leander  and  William,  whom  he 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK 


303 


admitted  to  partnership.  Before  long  he  laid  down  rules  of 
action  from  which  he  never  swerved,  and  which  contributed 
as  much  as  his  great  executive  ability  to  his  success.  First 
of  all,  he  produced  a  machine  of  high  merit,  from  year  to 
year  embodying  every  improvement  worthy  of  inclusion. 
He  gave  his  reapers  the  widest  possible  publicity,  through  an 
army  of  tactful  and  tireless  agents,  and  by  means  of  field 
contests  sustained  for  years.  His  newspaper  advertise- 
ments were  liberal  to  prodigality.  His  customers  once  at- 


MCCORMICK  REAPER  SHOWN  AT  THE  GREAT  EXHIBITION,  LONDON,  1851 
[From  "The  Illustrated  Exhibitor,"  London,  1851.] 

tracted,  he  made  them  his  friends.  "He  sold  at  invariable 
prices,  giving  a  written  guarantee  with  each  machine.  A 
dissatisfied  buyer  had  his"  cash  returned  without  parley.  A 
responsible  agent  in  every  town  worth  while  gave  instruc- 
tion to  inexperienced  buyers,  while  he  sold  and  fitted  repair 
parts  on  moderate  terms.  This  energy,  sagacity,  and  in- 
tegrity were  amply  rewarded.  Soon  McCormick's  busi- 
ness had  become  so  prosperous  that  he  cast  wistful  glances 
across  the  sea.  Why  not  add  markets  in  Europe  to  markets 
in  America?  For  this  a  door  opened  with  the  inaugural  of 
World's  Fairs  by  the  Great  Exhibition  held  in  London  in 
1851.  Thither  McCormick  sent  an  array  of  reapers,  as  did 


304         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Obed  Hussey,  his  chief  rival  at  home.  Hussey  faced  the 
McCormick  machine  in  a  competition  witnessed  by  thou- 
sands of  farmers  and  farmhands.  Hussey 's  reaper  was  in 
charge  of  a  raw  recruit,  who  mismanaged  it,  so  that  the 
medal  went  to  McCormick.  At  Ormesby,  near  Middles- 
borough-on-Tees,  a  second  contest  took  place,  in  which  the 
palm  went  to  Hussey. 

These  tests,  following,  as  they  did,  the  daily  inspection 
of  the  American  reapers  by  thousands  of  visitors  to  the 
Crystal  Palace,  deeply  stirred  the  British  public.  The  local 
press  declared  that  every  essential  feature  of  these  machines 
had  long  been  devised  in  England  and  Scotland,  and  ap- 
proved itself  in  years  of  constant  use.  It  was  the  vast 
breadths  of  level  land  in  America  that  had  given  the  reaper 
an  opportunity  for  which  British  farms  could  offer  no 
parallel.  So  far  as  McCormick  was  concerned,  his  exhibits 
in  London  had  two  permanent  results.  He  received  an  ad- 
vertisement of  immense  value,  assuring  the  success  of  the 
branches  he  established  throughout  Europe.  The  second 
item  appeared  on  the  opposite  side  of  his  ledger.  His  op- 
ponents at  home,  always  numerous  and  troublesome,  were 
greatly  heartened  by  the  onslaughts  of  his  foreign  critics. 
His  patents  were  attacked  in  court  and  out  of  court,  and, 
in  the  main,  with  success.  When  he  sought  renewals  of 
these  patents,  his  basic  claims  were  decided  to  be  unfounded. 
He  was  wont  to  aver  that  his  income  had  been  derived 
not  from  royalties  as  an  inventor,  but  from  profits  as  a 
manufacturer.  One  of  his  suits  has  a  place  in  history.  In 
1856  McCormick  sued  Talcott,  Emerson  &  Company  for  in- 
fringement of  patents.  The  counsel  in  defense  were 
George  Harding,  of  Philadelphia,  the  eminent  patent  lawyer, 
Edwin  M.  Stanton,  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  whose  retaining 
fee  was  $1,000.  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  argue  the  case,  but 
he  closely  followed  its  proceedings,  forming  a  high  opinion 
of  the  acumen  of  Stanton,  whom  he  afterward  chose  as  his 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  305 

Secretary  of  War.  To  Stanton  went  the  decision  against 
McCormick. 

And  now  let  us  return  to  the  reaper  which,  undoubtedly 
British  in  its  creation,  has  been  developed  in  America,  step 
by  step,  until  it  has  become  the  self-binding  harvester.  In 
each  successive  stride  of  this  evolution  McCormick  was,  of 
course,  vitally  interested  as  the  leading  manufacturer  in 
the  world.  In  1849  a  McCormick  reaper  had  been  fur- 
nished by  J.  J.  and  H.  F.  Mann,  of  Indiana,  with  a  mov- 
ing platform,  which  carried  the  cut  grain  to  a  wagon  along- 
side. This  was  good,  but  why  should  good  stand  in  the 
way  of  better?  In  1858,  Charles  W.  and  William  W. 
Marsh,  two  brothers  of  Canadian  nativity,  residing  in  De 
Kalb,  Illinois,  were  using  a  Mann  machine,  when  Charles 
asked  William :  "  Why  should  this  grain  be  carried  up  to 
a  wagon  ?  Why  not  put  a  footboard  on  this  machine,  where 
two  men  can  stand  while  they  bind  the  grain  as  fast  as  it  is 
carried  up  ?  "  This  idea  proved  sound  when,  a  few  weeks 
afterward,  it  was  tested  in  the  first  Marsh  harvester.  That 
machine  held  the  field  for  ten  years  or  more.  It  did  not 
dismiss  the  human  binder,  but,  as  he  could  now  stand  up 
straight,  he  worked  twice  as  fast  as  before,  and  with  com- 
parative ease.  While  the  Marsh  harvester  in  itself  scored  a 
decided  advance,  it  put  inventors  on  the  track  of  the  self- 
binder,  that  climax  of  mechanical  ingenuity.  For  this  the 
chief  requirement  was  a  knotter.  This  came  first  from 
Charles  B.  Withington;  a  later  and  better  device  was  in- 
vented by  John  F.  Appleby.* 

Charles  B.  Withington,  like  Ottmar  Mergenthaler,  en- 
tered the  arena  of  invention  through  a  watchmaker's  shop. 
As  a  youth,  at  Janesville,  Wisconsin,  to  earn  a  little  pocket 
money,  he  went  into  the  fields  near  home  to  bind  grain. 
He  was  so  slight  in  build  that  the  toil  was  unendurably 

*  Charles  W.  Marsh's  "Recollections  1837 — 1910,"  were  published 
in  1910,  by  the  Farm  Implement  News  Co.,  Chicago. 


306          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

severe.  This  impelled  him  to  devise  a  machine  to  abolish 
the  fell  drudgery  of  binding  by  hand.  His  first  self-binder 
was  put  together  in  1872,  to  be  manufactured  and  sold  by 
Walter  A.  Wood,  at  Hoosick  Falls,  New  York.  Two 
years  later  the  inventor  struck  a  bargain  with  McCormick, 
who  thereafter  produced  the  machine.  Its  design  was 
highly  ingenious.  Two  steel  arms  caught  each  bundle  of 
grain,  whirled  a  wire  around  it,  fastened  the  ends  of  that 
wire  with  a  twist,  then  cut  the  bundle  loose  and  cast  it 
to  the  ground.  A  Withington  machine  was  tested  for  Mc- 
Cormick on  the  Sherwood  Farm,  near  Elgin,  Illinois.  It 
cut  and  bound  fifty  acres  of  wheat  without  a  slip.  Harvest- 
ing had  at  last  dismissed  all  hands  but  a  driver  for  the 
horses.  Sicklers  and  cradlers,  rakers  and  binders,  were  at 
a  stroke  paid  off. 

Withington  was  not  the  only  inventor  in  his  field.  The 
brothers  James  F.  and  John  H.  Gordon,  of  Rochester,  New 
York,  devised  a  self-binder  manufactured  by  D.  M.  Os- 
borne  &  Company,  of  Auburn,  in  the  same  State.  In  its 
latest  form  this  machine  afforded  means  of  shifting  the 
binder  to  accommodate  various  lengths  of  grain.  This 
feature  survives  in  all  modern  machines.  But  the  Withing- 
ton and  Gordon  binders,  with  all  other  machines  of  the 
same  class,  harbored  a  fatal  defect  in  their  use  of  wire. 
This  wire  fell  into  straw  and  killed  cattle :  it  became  mixed 
with  wheat  to  strike  fire  in  flour  mills  and  burn  them  down. 
It  lacerated  the  fingers  of  grain  handlers  at  docks,  eleyators, 
and  railroad  stations.  Deering,  a  formidable  rival  to  Mc- 
Cormick, came  into  the  market  with  a  binder  which  used 
twine  instead  of  wire.  This  competition  had  to  be  met,  so 
McCormick  engaged  Marquis  L.  Gorham  to  devise  a  binder 
of  distinct  pattern  which  should  use  twine.  This  was  duly 
accomplished,  and  the  Gorham  machine  was  at  once  placed 
on  sale  by  the  vast  round  of  McCormick  agencies.  Twine- 
binders  gave  a  strong  impulse  to  every  harvester  factory  in 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  307 

America,  supplying,  as  they  did,  the  one  link  which  had 
been  lacking  in  a  machine  otherwise  perfect.  In  1860  about 
60,000  reapers  were  sold  in  America;  by  1885  tne  figure 
had  reached  250,000,  more  than  four  times  as  many.  Most 
of  these  machines  were  the  "  Appleby."  Just  here  a  word 
of  comment  by  Robert  L.  Ardrey  is  worth  repeating :  "  Ap- 
pleby's  success  was  not  due  to  the  newness  of  the  devices  he 
applied,  or  to  the  surpassing  character  of  Appleby's  genius, 
although  he  has  been  a  persistent  and  clearheaded  inventor ; 
but  it  would  seem  that  the  ingenuity  of  a  number  of  in- 
ventors, running  in  the  same  direction,  had  become  massed 
or  dammed  before  certain  common  obstructions,  beyond 
which  they  could  not  flow.  It  was  reserved  for  him  to 
combine  in  his  binder,  built  upon  the  Marsh  harvester,  the 
most  practical  of  these  principles,  directing  the  best  efforts 
of  many  predecessors  into  one  channel,  and  by  adding  de- 
vices of  his  own  to  remove  the  obstructions,  thus  opening  the 
way  for  the  flood  that  followed." 

While  twine-binders  were  fast  broadening  the  tilled 
areas  of  the  West  and  the  Northwest,  with  equal  step  went 
a  remarkable  change  in  the  manufacturing  world.  Year  by 
year,  while  the  sale  of  self-binders  swept  steadily  upward, 
the  number  of  producers  became  fewer  and  fewer:  the  era 
of  big  production  had  dawned,  the  "  Harvester  trust,"  with 
its  nation-wide  grasp,  was  not  far  away.  Many  firms  were 
squeezed  out  of  business  through  lack  of  capital.  Small 
shops,  with  comparatively  simple  outfits,  could  not  furnish 
an  intricate  machine,  of  standard  quality,  at  the  low  price 
then  current.  Yet  that  price,  on  the  prodigious  turnover 
of  McCormick,  netted  him  a  huge  fortune. 

Striking  is  the  contrast  between  the  first  reaper  that 
McCormick  made  and  the  self-binding  harvester  he  was 
now  manufacturing.  In  its  elaborate  mechanism  its  in- 
ventors had  repeated  their  own  nerves  and  muscles,  and 
even  their  brains.  It  cut  its  grain,  carried  it  on  a  canvas 


308          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

elevator  to  steel  bands  which  shaped  it  into  bundles,  neatly 
tied  a  cord  around  each  bundle,  and  then  cut  the  cord.  This 
bound  sheaf  was  then  pushed  into  a  basket  and  held  until 
five  sheaves  were  collected,  when  they  were  dropped  to 
the  ground.  Since  1884,  the  year  of  McCormick's  death, 
there  has  been  no  essential  change  in  the  self-binder. 
Within  his  span  of  seventy-five  years  he  saw  the  reaper 
born  and  gradually  flower  into  this  wonderful  self-acting 
machine. 

Machines,  as  they  have  taken  the  place  of  tools  on  Amer- 
ican farms,  have  wrought  an  advance  comparable  with  that 
ushered  in  when  tillers  of  the  soil  first  equipped  themselves 
with  picks  and  spades,  plows  and  scythes.  In  1904,  Mr. 
H.  W.  Quaintance  published  "  The  Influence  of  Farm  Ma- 
chinery on  Production  and  Labor,"  in  the  series  of  the 
American  Economic  Association.  In  contrasting  1896  with 
1830,  he  found  that  the  cost  of  producing  wheat  had  in 
sixty  years  fallen  as  much  as  72  per  cent.  In  this  result 
harvesting  machinery  had  played  the  chief  part.  Figures 
much  more  striking  are  recorded  in  the  Far  West,  where 
headers  are  employed  to  gather  the  crops : 

"  On  California  and  Oregon  farms,  fifty  horse-power 
traction  engines  are  at  work.  Each  one  drags  sixteen  ten- 
inch  plows,  four  six-feet  harrows,  and  a  press-drill  for 
planting  seed-wheat.  One  engine  thus  performs  the  triple 
labor  of  plowing,  harrowing,  and  planting  at  once.  One 
machine  plants  with  wheat  fifty  to  seventy-five  acres  in  a 
day,  mounting  hilly  and  rough  ground  as  easily  as  it 
traverses  a  dead  level.  When  the  grain  is  ripe,  a  harvester 
is,  by  the  same  means,  pulled  across  the  fields.  Its  cutters 
are  twenty  to  twenty-six  feet  wide.  When  they  have  fin- 
ished their  task,  automatic  rakers  gather  the  grain  stalks 
and  carry  them  to  rows  of  knives,  where  they  are  at  once 
headed.  Then,  in  the  same  operation,  the  wheat,  hard  and 
dry,  in  that  climate,  is  threshed  out,  cleaned,  and  sacked, 
leaving  behind  the  huge  machine  a  trail  of  sacked  wheat 
ready  for  the  market.  Another  traction  engine,  with  a 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  309 

train  of  a  dozen  cars,  follows  along,  gathering  up  the  sacks 
and  taking  them  to  the  granary.  Seventy  or  more  acres  of 
wheat  are  thus  harvested  in  one  day.  All  the  work  on  a 
farm  of  a  thousand  acres  may  be  thus  accomplished  by  six 
men  in  much  less  time  than  by  sixty  men  on  a  farm  of  half 
the  area  without  these  modern  machines." 

A  great  invention,  such  as  the  header  of  the  Far  West,  or 
the  self-binding  harvester  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  may 
be  regarded  as  a  target.  Its  bull's-eye  is  reached,  zone  by 
zone,  only  by  those  marksmen  who  have  the  skill  and  pa- 
tience to  practise  all  the  way  from  circumference  to  center. 
Over  and  over  again  inventors  strove  to  design  self-raking 
devices  before  a  practical  cutter  was  born.  And  long  be- 
fore a  successful  reaper  had  taken  its  path  through  a 
field  of  wheat,  there  were  half  a  dozen  attempts  to  build 
automatic  binders.  As  long  ago  as  June  28,  1836,  H. 
Moore  and  J.  Hascall,  of  Kalamazoo,  Michigan,  patented  a 
machine  for  harvesting,  threshing,  cleaning,  and  bagging 
grain  at  once! 

The  marvelous  economy  of  modern  farming  machinery 
explains  the  drift  of  rural  populations  to  cities,  a  movement 
which  has  given  rise  to  so  much  comment,  wise  and  un- 
wise. Mr.  Quaintance,  in  the  monograph  already  cited, 
says: 

"  The  transfer  of  occupations  from  the  country  to  the 
town  is  still  going  on,  and  will  go  on  until  division  of  labor 
and  labor-saving  devices  shall  have  served  their  purpose. 
It  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that  this  should  be  so,  since 
thus  work  can  be  done  most  economically ;  and  it  is  equally 
in  the  nature  of  things  that  people  should  compete  for  the 
better  conditions  thus  offered.  It  is  in  vain  to  try  to 
keep  the  boy  upon  the  farm  where  the  work  is  slipping  from 
his  grasp.  He  must  follow  his  work.  The  zeal  which  some 
townspeople  manifest  in  their  efforts  to  persuade  the  farm- 
ers' boys  to  remain  upon  the  farm,  betrays  a  fear  that  the 
advent  of  vigorous  blood  may  diminish  the  profit  which 


3io         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

now  arises  by  reason  of  the  somewhat  restricted  number  of 
competitors." 

McCormick's  vast  scale  of  production  was  not  always  as 
economical  as  it  might  have  been.  One  morning,  in  the 
seventies,  Edward  K.  Butler,  at  the  head  of  the  sales 
department,  said  to  the  chieftain :  "  If  I  had  control  of 
this  factory  I  could  double  its  output  with  but  little  ex- 
tra expense."  "  Go  ahead,"  replied  McCormick.  Butler 
made  good.  By  the  end  of  a  twelvemonth  he  doubled 
the  production  of  machines  without  hiring  a  single  ad- 
ditional hand.  So  much  for  "  scientific  management " 
long  before  its  rules  were  codified  by  Frederick  Winslow 
Taylor. 

McCormick  late  in  the  sixties  removed  his  home  to  New 
York,  where  he  resided  at  40  Fifth  Avenue,  near  Tenth 
Street.  During  the  great  fire  in  Chicago  in  1871,  he  was 
in  that  city,  transacting  business  of  importance.  When,  in 
response  to  a  despatch,  his  wife  came  to  him  two  days 
afterward,  he  met  her  wearing  a  hat  and  waistcoat  half 
burned.  His  factory,  which  had  been  building  ten  thou- 
sand harvesters  a  year,  lay  in  ashes.  He  asked  his  wife: 
"  Shall  I  rebuild,  or  retire  from  business  ?  "  She,  with  her 
son  in  mind,  said :  "  Rebuild."  At  once  McCormick  be- 
came energy  incarnate.  He  bought  every  stick  of  timber 
he  could  lay  his  hands  on.  He  bade  all  his  out-of-town 
agents  remit  him  every  dollar  in  their  tills.  Before  the 
cinders  in  his  cellar  were  cool,  he  planned  bigger  and  better 
premises  than  those  destroyed.  And  he  decided  to  return 
to  Chicago  as  his  home.  He  had  seen  her  census  multi- 
plied thirty- fold:  she  had  earned  for  him  the  bulk  of  his 
fortune :  in  her  distress  he  came  loyally  to  her  rescue.  His 
example  was  catching.  Many  a  neighbor  took  heart  as  Mc- 
Cormick led  the  way  to  refound  a  new  metropolis  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Michigan.  In  1879,  eight  years  afterward, 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  3" 

his  firm  became  the  McCormick  Harvesting  Machine  Com- 
pany, with  Cyrus  Hall  McCormick  as  its  president  and 
guiding  spirit. 

McCormick  was  a  great  deal  more  than  a  strong  and 
thriving  man  of  business;  he  was  a  good  citizen,  who  all 
his  life  long  took  a  keen  interest  in  politics.  He  was  a 
Democrat  of  the  school  of  Jefferson;  while  several  times 
nominated  for  office,  he  never  won  an  election.  These  con- 
tests culminated  in  1877  by  his  seeking  admission  to  the 
National  Senate.  When  news  of  his  defeat  came  to  him, 
he  did  not  waste  a  moment  in  complaint  or  regret,  he  simply 
said :  "  Well,  that's  over.  What's  next?  " 

In  the  months  of  turmoil  and  anxiety  which  preceded  the 
storming  of  Fort  Sumter,  in  April,  1861,  he  was  deeply 
moved.  As  a  Southerner  born  and  bred,  who  had  lived  in 
the  North  since  early  manhood,  he  clearly  saw  both  sides 
of  a  quarrel  which  threatened  the  nation's  life.  He  at- 
tended the  Democratic  Convention  of  1860,  in  Baltimore,  as 
a  supporter  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas  for  the  Presidency.  Mc- 
Cormick strove  with  all  his  might  for  compromise  and 
peace.  To  that  end  he  wrote  editorials,  delivered  speeches, 
and  interviewed  the  leaders  in  all  camps.  When  he  re- 
turned home  he  continued  his  labors,  equally  in  vain.  He 
bought  the  Chicago  Times  to  explain  to  his  fellow-citizens 
the  circumstances  and  arguments  of  the  South.  During  the 
war  he  poured  into  the  Democratic  press  a  large  part  of  his 
income  from  the  reaper.  That  machine  was  every  whit  as 
effective  in  the  Union  cause  as  if  McCormick  had  bestowed 
upon  its  army  a  rifle  of  lengthened  range,  or  an  explosive 
of  doubled  penetration.  Said  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  the  Secre- 
tary of  War :  "  The  reaper  is  to  the  North  what  slavery  is 
to  the  South.  By  taking  the  place  of  regiments  of  young 
men  in  the  Western  harvest  fields,  it  releases  them  to  do 
battle  for  the  Union  at  the  front,  and  at  the  same  time  keeps 
up  the  supply  of  bread  for  the  nation  and  its  armies. 


312          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Without  McCormick's  invention  I  fear  the  North  could 
not  win,  and  the  Union  would  be  dismembered." 

Appomattox,  the  scene  of  the  surrender  of  Lee  to  Grant, 
is  in  the  same  State  as  the  McCormick  homestead.  That 
surrender  at  once  kindled  in  McCormick's  heart  an  earnest 
desire  for  amity  and  good  will  between  the  reunited  halves 
of  the  nation.  On  behalf  of  church  unity  he  said :  "  Now 
that  the  great  conflict  is  past  and  its  issues  settled,  religion 
and  patriotism  alike  require  the  exercise  of  forbearance 
all  round,  and  the  pursuit  of  those  things  which  tend  to 
peace."  His  interest  in  church  affairs  had  begun  many 
years  before  that  morning.  In  1834,  when  twenty-five  years 
of  age,  he  joined  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  was  ever 
one  of  its  stanch  supporters,  deeming  himself  of  its  "  old 
school."  After  his  first  visit  to  New  York,  he  summed  up 
his  impressions  thus :  "  It  is  a  desirable  place,  with  regular 
and  good  Presbyterian  preaching."  In  1859  ne  gave 
$100,000  to  found  the  Northwestern  Theological  Seminary 
of  Chicago,  which  replaced  a  decaying  college  in  New  Al- 
bany, Indiana.  He  afterward  added  gifts  of  nearly 
$400,000.  His  last  public  speech,  read  for  him  by  his  son 
Cyrus  because  of  his  own  serious  illness,  was  on  the  occa- 
sion of  adding  a  building  to  this  Seminary.  After  his  death 
it  received  his  name,  and  his  widow  and  children  added  more 
than  a  million  dollars  to  its  resources.  McCormick  was  a 
faithful  son  of  Virginia.  At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  her 
institutions  of  learning  were  sorely  in  need  of  help.  He 
gave  $30,000  in  1866  to  her  Union  Theological  Seminary. 
To  the  Washington  and  Lee  University  of  Lexington,  near 
his  first  home,  he  gave  $20,000.  Of  this  University  he  was 
a  trustee  during  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  life.  After  his 
death  his  heirs  established  its  McCormick  professorship  of 
natural  philosophy  by  an  additional  gift  of  $20,000. 

What  of  Cyrus  Hall  McCormick  as  a  man?  His  biog- 
rapher, Herbert  N.  Casson,  tells  us : 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK  313 

"  Cyrus  Hall  McCormick  was  a  great  commercial  Thor. 
He  was  six  feet  tall,  weighed  two  hundred  pounds,  and  had 
the  massive  shoulders  of  a  wrestler.  His  body  was  well 
proportioned,  with  small  hands  and  feet.  His  hair,  even  in 
old  age,  was  very  dark  and  waving.  His  bearing  was  erect, 
his  manner  often  imperious,  and  his  general  appearance  that 
of  a  man  built  on  large  lines  and  for  large  affairs.  Men 
of  lesser  caliber  regarded  him  with  fear,  not  for  any  definite 
reason,  but  because,  as  Seneca  has  said :  '  In  him  that  has 
power,  all  men  consider  not  what  he  has  done,  but  what 
he  may  do.'  He  was  so  strong,  so  dominating,  so  ready 
to  crush  through  obstacles  by  sheer  bulk  of  will  power,  that 
smaller  men  could  never  quite  subdue  a  feeling  of  alarm 
while  they  were  in  his  presence.  He  was  impatient  of  small 
talk,  small  criticisms,  and  small  objections.  He  had  no  tact 
at  retail,  and  he  saw  no  differences  in  little-minded  people. 
All  his  life  he  had  been  plagued  and  obstructed  by  the  Lilli- 
putians of  the  world,  and  he  had  no  patience  to  listen  to 
their  chattering.  He  was  often  as  rude  as  Carlyle  to  those 
who  tied  their  little  threads  of  pessimism  across  his  path. 
At  fashionable  gatherings  he  would  now  and  then  be  seen 
—a  dignified  figure ;  but  his  mind  was  almost  too  ponderous 
an  engine  to  do  good  service  in  a  light  conversation.  If  a 
subject  did  not  interest  him,  he  had  nothing  to  say.  What 
gave  him,  perhaps,  the  highest  degree  of  social  pleasure 
was  the  entertaining,  at  his  house,  of  such  men  as  Horace 
Greeley,  William  H.  Seward,  Peter  Cooper,  Abram  S. 
Hewitt,  George  Peabody,  Junius  Morgan,  Cyrus  W.  Field, 
or  some  old  friend  from  Virginia. 

"  His  long  years  of  pioneering  had  made  him  a  self- 
sufficient  man,  and  a  man  who  lived  from  within.  He  did 
not  pick  up  his  opinions  on  the  streets.  His  mind  was  not 
open  to  any  chance  idea.  He  had  certain  clear,  definite  con- 
victions, logical  and  consistent.  What  he  knew,  he  knew. 
There  were  no  hazy  imaginings  in  his  brain.  The  main 
secret  of  his  ability  lay  in  his  power  to  focus  all  his  energies 
upon  a  few  subjects.  Once,  in  1848,  he  mentioned  the 
French  Revolution  in  one  of  his  letters.  '  It  is  a  mighty 
affair/  he  wrote,  '  and  will  be  likely  to  stand/  But  usually 
he  paid  little  attention  to  the  world-dramas  that  were  being 


3H          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

enacted.     He  was  too  busy — too  devoted  to  affairs  which,  if 
he  did  not  attend  to  them,  would  not  be  attended  to  at  all."  * 

In  1858,  at  the  mature  age  of  forty-nine,  McCormick 
married  Miss  Nettie  Fowler,  of  New  York.  She  was  a 
wife  worthy  of  him.  As  he  grew  older  he  leaned  on  her 
judgment  more  and  more.  To  their  union  four  sons  and 
two  daughters  were  born.  Cyrus,  the  eldest,  is  president 
of  the  International  Harvesting  Company,  lineally  descended 
from  his  grandfather's  little  foundry  business  in  Virginia. 
As  the  hand  of  time  was  placed  on  the  stalwart  shoulders  of 
Cyrus  Hall  McCormick,  his  health  became  impaired,  so  that 
for  weeks  together  he  was  unable  to  cross  his  threshold. 
At  such  times  his  memory  would  return  to  his  earliest  years. 
One  morning,  looking  at  a  bunch  of  beautiful  flowers,  he 
said :  "  I  love  the  old-fashioned  pinks :  they  used  to  grow 
in  my  mother's  garden."  Often  the  tears  rose  to  his  eyes 
when  he  saw  mountains  like  those  of  his  native  Virginia. 
"  Oh,  Charlie,"  he  said  one  day  to  his  valet,  "  how  I  wish  I 
could  get  on  a  horse  and  ride  through  those  mountains  once 
again !  "  As  the  end  approached,  he  found  more  and  more 
solace  in  music.  As  a  youth  he  had  sung  in  the  New 
Providence  Church  in  Rockbridge  County,  and  ever  since 
he  had  never  failed  to  hear  the  best  musicians  of  his  day. 
He  was  wont  to  recall  with  enthusiasm  the  performances  of 
Jenny  Lind  and  Ole  Bull,  Scandinavians  both,  as  he  was 
wont  to  remark.  The  winter  of  1883-1884  brought  his 
strength  to  a  low  ebb.  The  warmth  of  spring  brought  him 
no  restoration.  On  the  131.11  of  May,  1884,  he  died  at  his 
home  in  Rush  Street,  Chicago.  His  parting  words  were: 
"  Work,  work !  " 

*"  Cyrus  Hall  McCormick:  his  life  and  work,"  by  Herbert  N. 
Casson,  copyright  by  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago,  1909. 


INVENTOR  OF  THE  REMINGTON  STANDARD  TYPKWRITKR 


CHRISTOPHER  LATHAM  SHOLES 

MY  niece,  seven  years  of  age,  picked  up,  an  hour  ago,  a 
few  acorns  under  an  oak  of  October.  From  one  of  these 
nuts  she  has  pulled  away  the  cup.  This  cup,  dipped  in 
water  and  pressed  upon  paper,  makes  a  dozen  much  better 
circles  than  Jessie  could  draw  with  either  her  pencil  or  pen. 
And  why?  Because  now  she  has  simply  to  press  one  ob- 
ject on  another,  an  acorn  cup  on  a  bit  of  paper,  to  leave 
an  impression.  Without  knowing  it,  she  is  a  Printer. 
When  her  forbears  long  ago  came  to  this  art  of  printing 
they  proved  themselves  to  be  human  in  skill  and  faculty, 
and  gave  token  of  an  immeasurable  advance  beyond  their 
lowly  kindred  of  the  forest  and  the  glade.  At  first,  in  all 
likelihood,  they  imprinted  upon  mud  and  clay  the  outlines 
of  nuts  and  leaves,  feathers  and  shells,  more  in  simple  sport 
than  from  any  other  impulse.  When  the  arts  of  making 
weapons  and  tools  arose,  we  may  be  sure  that  swords  and 
knives,  arrow-heads  and  hammers,  were  bidden  to  impress 
their  contours  upon  clay,  wax,  and  other  yielding  surfaces. 
By  and  by  stamps  and  brands  for  cattle  and  horses  were 
produced, — a  new  step  in  the  art  of  printing.  More  im- 
portant still  was  the  carving  of  seals.  These  gradually  be- 
came larger  and  more  intricate,  so  as  to  set  forth  a  tribal 
record,  a  deed  of  sale,  a  mortgage,  or  a  military  proclama- 
tion. The  point  to  be  remarked  is  that  a  printer,  wholly 
devoid  of  skill,  can  impress  a  complicated  outline  from  a 
crystal  or  a  metal  plate  every  whit  as  well  as  its  carver  or 
engraver.  In  the  labor  of  depiction  it  is  this  artist  who 
does  the  chief  part  of  the  work;  when  he  has  finished,  a 
mere  copier,  with  slight  exertion,  can  reproduce  his  out- 
lines rapidly  and  easily.  Such  is  the  marvel  of  printing. 

315 


3i6          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Second  only  to  articulate  speech  is  the  art  of  writing; 
and  the  slowness  of  writing,  its  laboriousness,  its  frequent 
illegibility,  have  for  centuries  prompted  men  of  ingenuity 
to  modes  of  printing  instead  of  writing.  Years  ago,  near 
Rome,  a  brass  plate  was  found  bearing  the  name : 


CIACAECILI 
HERMIAE.     SN. 


It  is  about  two  inches  long  and  nearly  an  inch  wide.  This 
plate  could  be  used  either  as  a  seal  to  save  its  owner  writing 
his  name,  or  as  an  engraving  from  which  to  print  with  ink. 
To  keep  clean  its  user's  fingers,  it  had  a  convenient  handle. 
Ancient,  to  be  sure,  is  the  lineage  of  like  stamps,  to-day  cast 
in  rubber,  and  sold  for  a  few  cents  each  throughout 
America. 

Beyond  this  making  of  name-plates,  a  noteworthy  step 
was  taken  by  Italian  copyists  as  long  ago  as  the  twelfth 
century.  They  engraved  elaborate  initials  upon  metal 
stamps,  and  impressed  these  upon  their  pages.  They  may 
have  lacked  skill  enough  to  execute  these  letters  with  pens, 
or  they  may  have  simply  wished  to  save  time  as  they  copied 
a  Bible  or  a  Psalter.  Long  before  their  time,  linen  and 
silk  had  been  printed  with  intricate  patterns  from  en- 
graved blocks,  and  this  effective  plan  they  applied  to  the 
production  of  books  and  manuscripts.  So  gainful  was  this 
ingenuity  that  soon  not  only  initials,  but  every  other  char- 
acter on  a  page,  was  printed  from  stamps,  so  that  whole 
books  were  produced  from  just  such  simple  tools  as  book- 
binders use  to  impress  titles  on  their  volumes.  Of  books 
printed  with  hand  stamps,  the  most  famous  is  the  Silvered 
Book  of  Upsala,  in  Sweden.  It  is  so  called  because  its 
letters  are  in  silver ;  occasionally  these  letters  are  found 
turned  upside  down,  an  error  possible  to  a  hand  printer, 


C.  L.  SHOLES  317 

but  not  a  penman.  This  work  contains  the  four  gospels  in 
the  Mceso-Gothic  language,  and  is  deemed  a  relic  of  the 
Gothic  Bible  of  about  A.  D.  360. 

And  now  a  leap  was  taken,  memorable  for  all  time,  and 
quite  without  forecast  as  to  the  wings  it  would  bestow 
upon  human  faculty.  Hand  stamps,  such  as  were  employed 
in  Italy  for  centuries,  were  taken  to  the  Netherlands,  where 
they  shrank  into  nothing  less  than  the  first  movable  types. 
Donatus,  an  eminent  teacher  who  flourished  about  350,  wrote 
for  boys  a  Latin  Grammar  which  bore  his  name.  For  cen- 
turies after  his  death  it  was  reprinted  from  engraved 
wooden  blocks.  In  Holland,  during  the  fifteenth  century, 
new  editions  appeared  in  which  movable  types  were,  for 
the  first  time,  in  service.  They  were  rudely  cut  or  cast, 
so  that  they  stood  together  somewhat  unevenly.  But,  poor 
as  they  were,  they  built  the  bridge  which  led  from  ancient 
copying  to  modern  printing.  It  would  seem  that  Guten- 
berg only  perfected  a  casting  of  types,  which,  in  their  orig- 
inal manufacture  by  his  predecessors,  were  faulty  both  in 
shape  and  size.  When  movable  types  were  cast  in  uniform 
molds,  carefully  cut,  hand  stamps  were  ousted  from  all  but 
a  mere  corner  of  their  field.  In  America  hand  stamps 
bearing  numerals  remained  in  use  for  paging  account  books, 
for  numbering  tickets,  and  the  like,  as  recently  as  1866, 
when  their  slowness  of  pace  suggested  the  invention  of  a 
machine  to  do  their  work  better  and  cheaper.  Its  designer, 
successful  in  this  modest  venture,  was  thus  led  to  devising 
the  modern  typewriter.  In  this  achievement  he  bade  slight 
blows  replace  the  delineations  of  the  pen,  slow  and  faulty 
at  best.  And  from  the  typewriter  has  sprung  a  machine 
more  ingenious  still,  the  linotype,  in  which  a  lettered  key- 
board is  the  initial  feature. 

Christopher  Latham  Sholes,  the  inventor  in  question,  was 
born  in  Mooresburg,  Montour  County,  Pennsylvania,  on 
February  14,  1819.  The  blood  of  John  Alden  ran  in  his 


3i8          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

veins,  and  so  did  that  of  New  England  soldiers  who  had 
borne  a  brave  part  in  the  revolutionary  war.  Both  by  na- 
ture and  nurture  he  was  a  man  of  brains,  character,  and 
courage.  At  fourteen  he  was  apprenticed  to  the  art  and 
craft  of  printing  in  the  office  of  the  Intelligencer,  at  Dan- 
ville, six  miles  from  his  birthplace.  At  eighteen  he  was  a 
proficient  compositor,  with  a  mastery  of  his  trade  much 
more  thorough  than  would  have  been  feasible  in  a  city 
printing  office,  with  its  departments  narrowly  subdivided. 
His  familiarity  with  types,  with  the  mechanism  of  presses, 
with  the  details  of  printing,  was  indispensable  to  him,  at  a 
later  day,  as  an  inventor. 

His  elder  brother,  Charles,  a  printer  like  himself,  some 
years  before  this  had  gone  to  Wisconsin,  where  he  was 
thriving  as  the  owner  and  editor  of  the  Democrat,  in  Green 
Bay.  Christopher  promptly  accepted  his  offer  of  a  post  on 
its  staff,  and  went  West  for  good  and  all.  In  his  new  field 
he  displayed  unusual  ability,  and  a  trustiness  more  uncom- 
mon still.  Within  a  year  he  was  sent  to  Philadelphia,  then 
a  formidable  journey,  there  to  have  printed  in  book  form 
the  Journal  of  the  Wisconsin  Legislature.  He  punctually 
brought  home  the  volumes;  they  were  executed  in  a  style 
and  with  a  correctness  which  at  once  gave  him  promotion. 
He  was  given  charge  of  the  Inquirer,  at  Madison,  a  news- 
paper owned  by  his  brother.  While  he  held  its  rudder,  he 
supervised  the  public  printing,  a  less  onerous  task  in  1839 
than  now.  But  his  activities,  manifold  though  they  were, 
left  him  wishing  to  be  still  more  busy.  In  partnership 
with  a  friend,  Michael  Frank,  he  established  the  Telegraph, 
at  Southport,  now  Kenosha,  a  journal  which  maintains  its 
prosperity  to  this  day.  Sholes,  through  his  public  spirit  and 
transparent  honesty,  soon  became  a  trusted  leader  in  his  new 
home.  This  was  recognized  by  his  being  appointed  post- 
master in  1843,  by  President  Polk.  Then  and  always  he 
was  a  man  of  clear  convictions  which  he  honored  by  use, 


C.  L.  SHOLES  319 

He  saw  an  exclusiveness  in  the  churches,  a  drifting  of  the 
lettered  few  from  the  unlettered  plain  people,  which  he  de- 
plored ;  by  way  of  remedy  he  took  a  hand  in  founding  the 
Excelsior  Church,  with  pure  democracy  as  its  corner-stone. 
Men  and  women  of  all  shades  of  belief,  and  disbelief,  were 
invited  to  take  part  in  its  free  discussions  of  life  here  and 
hereafter.  For  two  years  this  little  band  of  come-outers 
held  together,  making  a  deep  mark  on  the  community ;  then 
it  fell  apart  like  a  sand  heap,  never  again  to  unite. 

In  politics,  Sholes  was  equally  the  servant  of  ideas.  He 
joined  the  Barnburners'  wing  of  the  Democratic  party,  and 
fought  hard  against  the  growth  of  slave-holding  influences 
in  national  lawmaking.  As  a  member  of  the  State  Senate, 
in  1853,  he  introduced  a  bill  to  allow  negroes  claimed  as 
fugitive  slaves  the  right  of  habeas  corpus  and  trial  by 
jury.  This  measure  was  defeated.  Next  year  a  mob  in 
Milwaukee  rescued  from  jail  Joseph  Glover,  a  runaway 
slave,  enabling  him  to  escape  to  Canada.  Then  came  a 
clash  between  the  State  and  Federal  Courts  on  the  question 
as  to  how  far  a  State  could  protect  its  citizens  from  arrest 
and  imprisonment  at  the  hands  of  national  authority.  Mean- 
while the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Wisconsin 
declared  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  to  be  unconstitutional  and 
void.  On  the  strength  of  this  decision,  the  State  openly 
nullified  pro-slavery  laws  of  Federal  enactment,  with  the 
outspoken  approval  of  its  people.  When  the  inevitable  con- 
flict between  Slavery  and  Freedom  burst  into  flame,  no 
State  of  the  Union  sent  braver  troops  to  the  front,  year 
after  year,  than  did  Wisconsin.  Every  fifth  male  in  her 
population  became  a  soldier,  and  her  death  list  in  the  field 
was  no  less  than  10,752.  In  all  that  preceded  an  appeal  to 
arms,  in  all  that  went  to  bestow  victory  upon  the  soldiers 
of  the  North,  Sholes  took  an  unwavering  part,  exerting  an 
influence  as  wide  as  the  State.  While  a  member  of  the 
Wisconsin  Assembly  for  Kenosha  County,  he  witnessed  a 


320         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

tragedy  which  moved  him  profoundly.  This  was  the  shoot- 
ing of  Charles  C.  D.  Arndt,  the  Representative  of  Brown 
County,  by  James  H.  Vineyard,  of  Grant  County.  Their 
quarrel  had  turned  on  a  nomination  for  a  post  as  sheriff, 
Vineyard  advocating  his  brother  for  the  place.  Sholes  pub- 
lished a  recital  of  this  murder  in  the  Southport  Telegraph, 
where  it  caught  the  eye  of  Charles  Dickens,  who  transcribed 
it  in  his  "  American  Notes,"  with  an  array  of  other  acts  of 
violence,  all  due,  he  maintained,  to  the  brutalizing  in- 
fluences of  slavery. 

Errands  of  business  often  took  Sholes  to  Milwaukee, 
where  he  saw  with  what  rapid  strides  that  city  was  leav- 
ing behind  every  other  in  Wisconsin.  To  Milwaukee,  ac- 
cordingly, he  removed,  to  become  editor  of  the  Sentinel, 
and  later  of  the  News.  In  Milwaukee,  with  its  compara- 
tively large  population,  his  ability  and  straightforwardness 
gave  him  a  wider  group  of  friends  than  ever.  In  token  of 
popular  regard  he  was  chosen  Commissioner  of  Public 
Works,  and  afterward  Collector  of  Customs.  Yet  it  is  not 
as  a  legislator,  an  editor,  or  a  public  official,  that  he  is 
remembered.  His  fame  was  destined  to  take  its  rise  from 
the  trade  he  had  acquired  as  a  lad,  that  of  printing.  In 
those  days  it  was  usual  for  newspapers,  even  in  cities,  to 
conduct  a  department  of  job  printing,  as  a  rule  at  con- 
siderable profit.  A  strike  by  Sholes'  compositors  so  angered 
him  that  he  seriously  took  up  the  notion  of  typesetting  by 
machinery.  He  built  models  in  which  types  impressed 
themselves  on  wax,  but  this  wax  bulged  in  provoking 
ridges  that  spelt  utter  failure,  so  he  cast  his  models  aside 
and  made  peace  with  his  staff.  On.  quite  another  path  of 
printing  he  was  to  win  a  great  triumph,  beginning  with 
hand  stamps,  such  as  those  wielded  by  Italian  copyists  cen- 
turies before.  Sholes,  at  this  time,  manufactured  a  good 
many  blankbooks,  tickets,  coupons,  and  so  on,  all  numbered 
by  metal  stamps  of  the  old-fashioned  kind.  One  day  it  oc- 


C.  L.  SHOLES  321 

curred  to  him  that  he  could  devise  a  machine  to  perform 
this  work  much  more  neatly  and  quickly.  He  discussed  this 
project  with  a  friend,  Samuel  W.  Soule,  like  himself  a 
printer,  and  a  man  of  decided  ingenuity.  They  began  work 
at  once  in  a  small  room  on  an  upper  floor  of  a  mill  owned 
by  Henry  Smith,  an  old  friend.  This  two-and-a-half  story 
building,  in  simple  ashlar,  stood  on  a  narrow  strip  of  land 
between  the  Milwaukee  River  and  the  Rock  River  Canal. 
Here,  day  by  day,  Sholes  drew  his  plans  with  Soule's  aid, 
and  here  their  model  gradually  took  form,  proving  to  be  a 
thorough  success  in  a  final  test.  On  the  same  floor  of  the 
mill  was  the  workshop  of  another  tenant,  Carlos  Glidden, 
the  well-to-do  son  of  a  retired  ironmonger.  Glidden  was  an 
inventor,  too,  and  he  was  developing  a  spader  which  he 
believed  would  outdo  the  work  of  any  plow  on  the  market. 
Naturally,  there  arose  many  a  colloquy  betwixt  the  three 
inventors  regarding  their  plans,  with  much  debate  of  the 
weak  points  disclosed  as  their  experiments  followed  one 
another. 

Sholes  and  Soule  duly  patented  their  numbering  machine 
on  November  13,  1866.  Shortly  afterward  they  showed  it 
to  Glidden,  as  it  turned  out  capital  work  at  a  pace  far 
outstripping  that  of  manual  labor  at  its  best,  and  with  in- 
fallible correctness.  Glidden  exclaimed :  "  Sholes,  why 
cannot  you  build  a  machine  to  print  letters  and  words  as 
perfectly  as  these  figures  are  struck  off  here  ? "  This 
query  had  doubtless  often  been  put  to  other  inventors,  but 
now  it  was  asked  of  the  man  who  was  to  give  it  a  tri- 
umphant response.  But  not  at  once,  although  the  idea  took 
firm  root  in  Sholes'  mind,  and  kept  him  on  the  lookout  for 
any  information  that  would  serve  his  turn.  He  who  seeks, 
shall  find.  In  July,  1867,  Sholes  came  upon  a  description, 
in  the  Scientific  American,  of  a  writing  machine  for  which 
a  great  deal  was  claimed.  It  had  been  exhibited  in  London 
by  its  inventor,  John  Pratt,  of  Centre,  Alabama.  Its  de- 


322          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

scription  was  accompanied  by  an  editorial  prophecy  since 
fulfilled  in  all  but  its  closing  words :  "  A  machine  by  which 
it  is  assumed  that  a  man  may  print  his  thoughts  twice  as 
fast  as  he  can  write  them,  and  with  the  advantage  of  the 
legibility,  compactness,  and  neatness  of  print,  has  lately 
been  exhibited  before  the  London  Society  of  Arts,  by  the 
inventor,  Mr.  Pratt,  of  Alabama.  The  subject  of  typewrit- 
ting  is  one  of  the  interesting  aspects  of  the  near  future. 
Its  manifest  feasibility  and  advantage  indicate  that  the  la- 
borious and  unsatisfactory  performance  of  the  pen  must, 
sooner  or  later,  become  obsolete  for  general  purposes.  Le- 
gal copying,  and  the  writing  and  delivering  of  sermons  and 
lectures,  not  to  speak  of  letters  and  editorials,  will  undergo 
a  revolution  as  remarkable  as  that  effected  in  books  by  the 
invention  of  printing,  and  the  weary  process  of  learning  pen- 
manship in  schools  will  be  reduced  to  the  acquirement  of 
the  art  of  writing  one's  own  signature,  and  playing  on  the 
literary  piano  above  described,  or,  rather,  on  its  improved 
successors." 

Pratt's  machine  struck  Sholes  as  complicated  and  liable 
to  get  out  of  order.  He  believed  that  he  could  devise  mech- 
anism more  simple,  and  at  least  as  efficient.  Soule  had  been 
a  helpful  partner  in  the  numbering  machine,  a  success  from 
the  start;  would  Soule  embark  with  him  in  this  second 
project?  Yes.  Glidden,  who  had  given  Sholes  his  first 
push  from  the  shore,  was  received  as  a  third  partner:  he 
was  to  contribute  the  necessary  funds.  A  conference  was 
held  as  to  plans,  which  were  sketched  in  a  preliminary  way. 
First  of  all  a  writing  machine  must  write,  but  how  was  its 
paper  to  be  imprinted  ?  Soule  suggested  the  scheme,  never 
excelled,  of  placing  convergent  typebars  on  the  rim  of  a 
circle,  so  that  each  might  strike  the  center.  Whether  this 
design  was  original  with  him,  or  borrowed,  is  not  to  be 
ascertained  at  this  distant  day.  It  first  appeared  in  the  writ- 
ing machine  of  Xavier  Progin,  in  1833;  it  presented  itself 


C.  L.  SHOLES  323 

again  in  the  embossing  machine  of  Alfred  E.  Beach,  in  1856. 
Other  inventors  had  gone  astray  in  sliding  their  typebars 
through  a  horizontal  circle,  rotated  on  a  vertical  axis,  as 
Charles  Thurber  did,  in  1845.  When  an  operator  wished 
to  print  "  A  "  he  turned  the  ring  until  "  A  "  stood  over  the 
printing  point.  He  then  depressed  the  "  A  "  typerod  so  as 
to  leave  "  A  "  printed  on  the  paper  beneath.  This  mechan- 
ism, much  too  slow  for  business,  survives  in  toy  machines. 

And  yet  the  Thurber  design,  faulty  in  the  disposal  of  its 
typerods,  displayed  a  feature  of  cardinal  value;  its  paper 
was  borne  on  a  cylindrical  carriage,  or  platen,  and  this 
Sholes  adopted  in  his  second  model.  It  remains  to  this 
hour  an  indispensable  part  of  every  standard  machine. 
Sholes  devised  the  letters,  all  capitals,  a  spacer,  and  other 
details  equally  important.  But  no  one  of  the  three  partners 
undertook  any  systematic  inquiry  as  to  what  their  prede- 
cessors had  done,  so  they  troubled  themselves  to  devise  nov- 
elties which  worked  badly,  when  they  might  have  laid  hands 
on  old  contrivances  that  worked  well.  In  their  first  model 
Sholes  built  a  keyboard  resembling  that  of  a  piano,  with  two 
rows  of  keys : 

3579NOPQRSTUVWXYZ 
2468.ABCDEFGHIJKLM 

He  did  not  know  that  Dr.  William  Francis,  of  New  York, 
in  his  remarkable  machine  of  1857,  had  introduced  keys  of 
the  peg  form  now  universal,  and  arranged  them  in  four 
rows  so  as  greatly  to  shorten  the  journeys  taken  by  an 
operator's  fingers.  Sholes  at  length  abandoned  his  piano 
keyboard  at  the  instance  of  his  model-maker,  Matthias 
Schwalbach,  a  builder  of  tower-clocks  in  Milwaukee.  As 
we  have  just  seen,  Sholes  in  his  first  keyboard  gave  his 
characters  a  strictly  alphabetical  and  numerical  order.  He 
soon  changed  this  for  the  present  order  of  disposal  which, 


324          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

like  the  compartments  of  a  printer's  case,  places  the  char- 
acters oftenest  used  nearest  to  the  working  center.  As 
patented  on  July  14,  1868,  the  claims  of  Sholes,  Glidden,  and 
Soule  were:  (i)  A  circular  annular  disc,  with  radial 
grooves  and  slots  to  receive  and  guide  the  typebars  so  that 
they  struck  the  center.  (2)  Radial  typebars  to  correspond 
with  this  disc.  (3)  A  ratchet  to  move  the  paper-carriage 
by  the  breadth  of  a  tooth  when  a  key  was  struck.  (4)  A 
hinged  clamp  to  hold  the  paper  firmly  on  its  carriage. 

Frederick  Heath,  of  Milwaukee,  as  a  lad  was  employed 
as  a. messenger  by  Mr.  Sholes  as  he  began  to  devise  his  type- 
writer. On  the  wall  of  Mr.  Heath's  office  he  has  framed  a 
rough,  uncouth  model  of  the  first  machine  invented  by  Mr. 
Sholes.  "  His  original  idea,"  says  Mr.  Heath,  "  was  to 
have  his  keyboard  fashioned  after  that  of  a  piano,  and 
there  you  have  it.  The  first  row  is  of  ivory,  duly  lettered; 
the  second  row  is  of  ebony;  and  then,  as  you  see,  a  third 
row,  made  up  of  letters  and  characters  that  are  little  used, 
is  in  the  form  of  pegs.  The  framework  is  of  wood,  with  the 
leverage  below,  and  the  basket  form  of  typebars  above 
closely  resembles  those  of  some  machines  in  use  to-day. 
The  original  model  was  very  clumsy  and  weighty.  The 
writing  was  on  a  tape  of  tissue  paper,  and  the  platen  was 
fastened  to  the  body  of  the  boxlike  affair.  The  writing 
could  not  be  seen  till  it  was  completed,  and  when  the  docu- 
ment was  once  removed  from  the  machine  there  was  no  way 
by  which  it  could  be  replaced  with  any  degree  of  certainty 
that  the  lines  would  correspond  with  those  previously 
written. 

"  Mr.  Sholes  was  collector  of  customs  of  the  port  of  Mil- 
waukee during  most  of  the  time  that  he  was  engaged  in 
devising  his  typewriter,  and  later  he  was  Comptroller  of  the 
city  of  Milwaukee.  While  acting  in  this  latter  capacity,  it 
fell  to  his  lot  to  enter  into  a  contract,  on  behalf  of  the 
city,  for  the  paving  of  certain  streets.  He  had  the  contract 


FIRST  PATENT,  SHOLES,  GLIDDEN,  AND  SOULE,  JUNE  23,  1868 

Key-levers,  L,  vibrating  on  the  fulcrum,  M,  with  the  inner 
fingers,  u,  reaching  under  the  typebars,  so  that  the  keys  act  directly 
on  the  types. 

The  spacer  or  ratchet,  I,  combined  with  the  bifurcated  lever,  H, 
connected  with  the  bar,  T,  pivoted  at  s  and  resting  across  the  arms 
of  the  keys,  L,  so  that  striking  the  key-faces  will  work  the  teeth  of 
lever-forks  up  and  down  and  into  the  notches  of  the  spaces,  so  as 
duly  to  move  the  paper-carriage. 

The  pins,  e,  fastened  to  the  table  A',  combined  with  the  pawl,  h, 
and  the  spring,  /',  to  give  the  paper-carriage  a  certain  and  regular 
cross-line  movement  at  a  right  angle  to  the  space  movement  from 
line  to  line. 

The  spring-clasps,  b,  attached  to  the  bars,  C  and  C',  on  a  line 
through  the  middle  of  the  platen,  G,  combined  with  the  springs,  a, 
attached  to  the  bar,  E,  hold  the  paper  on  its  carriage  smoothly  and 
tightly. 

The  spools,  m,  combined  with  the  gudgeon,  s',  the  shaft,  /,  the 
pulleys,  k  and  R,  the  band,  i/',  the  cord,  v,  the  weight,  W,  the 
ratchet-wheel,  V,  the  pawl,  /,  and  the  bar,  P,  pivoted  to  the  back  of 
the  case.  A2,  feed  a  fresh  part  of  inking  ribbon  to  each  type  suc- 
cessively. 


326          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

written  on  one  of  his  machines,  and  this  is  claimed  to  have 
been  the  first  official  document  ever  produced  on  a  type- 
writer. In  that  machine,  only  capitals  appeared;  lower- 
case letters  came  later  as  an  addition.  For  his  first  model 
Mr.  Sholes  used  an  old  kitchen  table  which  he  found  in  a 
garret."  * 

It  has  often  been  asked,  why  did  inventors  so  ingenious 
as  Foucault  in  1849,  and  Beach  in  1856,  limit  their  ma- 
chines to  mere  embossing,  so  that  their  services  were  re- 
stricted to  the  blind?  Simply  because  they  were  unable 
to  contrive  a  simple  and  trustworthy  inker.  This  was  con- 
tributed by  Dr.  Francis  in  1857,  as  he  produced  the  inked 
ribbon  now  in  general  use.  Such  a  ribbon  is  virtually  dry 
under  a  light  touch;  under  the  sharp  stroke  of  a  typebar 
it  readily  parts  with  its  color.  Sholes  employed  this  ribbon 
in  his  first  machine,  and  was  ready  to  use  carbon  paper  as 
an  alternative.  To-day  carbon  paper  is  employed  solely  for 
duplication;  ribbons  are  the  chief  source  of  ink.  One  or 
two  popular  typewriters  use  inkpads,  and  find  them  satis- 
factory. 

In  that  grimy  old  mill  on  the  Rock  River  Canal  there  were 
interludes  to  lighten  and  brighten  the  toil  of  experiment. 
All  three  partners  were  chess  players  of  more  than  com- 
mon skill,  and  they  often  turned  from  ratchets  and  pinions 
to  moves  with  knights  and  pawns.  Ever  and  anon  a  friend 
would  drop  in,  and  the  talk  would  drift  from  writing  by 
machinery  to  Reconstruction  in  South  Carolina,  or  to  the 
quiet  absorption  by  farms  and  mills  of  the  brigades  mus- 
tered out  after  Appomattox.  Then,  with  zest  renewed,  the 
model  was  taken  up  once  more,  to  be  carried  another  stage 
toward  completion.  One  morning  it  printed  in  capitals  line 
after  line  both  legibly  and  rapidly.  Sholes,  Soule,  and  Glid- 
den  were  frankly  delighted.  They  determined  to  let  their 
friends  see  at  once  what  they  had  achieved,  so  they  wrote 
*" Typewriter  Topics,"  New  York,  April,  1909. 


C.  L.  SHOLES 


327 


hundreds  of  letters  on  their  typewriter  to  correspondents  far 
and  near.  Just  one  of  these  letters  hit  the  bull's  eye.  It 
went  to  James  Densmore,  of  Meadville,  Pennsylvania,  who 


FOUCAULT'S  PRINTING  KEY  FRAME,  BY  WHICH  THE  BLIND  MAY  WRITE 

Shown  at  the  Great  Exhibition,  London,  1851.  All  the  letters 
of  the  alphabet,  in  high  relief,  are  fixed  on  the  upper  end  of  a 
metallic  rod,  made  to  slide  longitudinally  in  a  channel  of  its  own. 
They  are  disposed  like  the  ribs  of  a  fan,  each  rod  showing  its  letter 
both  at  the  upper  and  lower  ends.  All  the  letters  converge  to  a 
center.  When  a  letter  is  embossed,  the  paper  moves  sidewise  by 
the  breadth  of  a  letter.  At  the  end  of  a  line,  the  paper  moves  per- 
pendicularly by  the  breadth  of  a  line. 

took  fire  at  this  demonstration  that  a  writing  machine  was 
about  to  supplant  the  pen.  He  was  sagacious  enough  to 
foresee  a  wide  and  profitable  acceptance  for  the  type- 


328          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

writer,  so  he  asked  the  price  of  a  share  in  its  patent.  The 
partners  were  greatly  cheered  by  this  proof  that  their  in- 
vention already  had  a  cash  value.  They  held  a  hurried  con- 
ference, and  agreed  to  offer  Densmore  one-fourth  of  their 
patent  on  his  paying  all  expenses  to  date.  He  said  "  Yes," 
without  a  day's  delay,  and  this  before  he  knew  what  the  ex- 
penses were.  It  was  the  following  March  when  he  first 
saw  the  machine,  and  he  examined  it  with  no  indulgent  eye. 
Its  creators  had  meanwhile  embodied  vital  improvements 
on  their  original  design,  and  they  were  rather  proud  of  the 
machine  as  it  stood.  Densmore  bluntly  declared  that  it 
was  good  for  nothing  except  to  show  that  its  underlying 
principles  were  sound.  He  urged  the  trio  to  proceed  with 
further  improvements,  and  promptly,  for  which  he  would 
advance  all  needed  funds.  At  this  stage  of  affairs,  Soule 
and  Glidden  retired  from  the  scene,  leaving  Sholes  and 
Densmore  in  sole  possession  of  the  patent,  and  whatever 
harvest  it  might  yield  in  time  coming. 

They  manfully  attacked  the  defects  of  their  model,  and 
patiently  built  other  models,  about  thirty  in  all,  each  with 
some  change,  usually  intended  to  reduce  friction  and 
heighten  speed.  Both  Sholes  and  Densmore  expected  that 
stenographers  would  be  among  the  first  and  best  buyers, 
so  they  sent  experimental  machines  to  a  leading  reporter  in 
Washington,  James  Ogilvie  Clephane,  who  afterward 
greatly  helped  Ottmar  Mergenthaler,  inventor  of  the  lino- 
type. Clephane  was  so  unsparing  in  his  tests  that  not  sel- 
dom he  reduced  a  machine  to  ruin.  His  judgments,  too, 
were  so  caustic  that  Sholes,  forbearing  though  he  was,  lost 
his  temper  at  last.  Said  he  to  Densmore :  "  I  am  through 
with  Clephane !  "  Densmore's  comment  was :  "  This  candid 
fault-finding  is  just  what  we  need.  We  had  better  have 
it  now  than  after  we  begin  manufacturing.  Where  Cle- 
phane points  out  a  weak  lever  or  rod  let  us  make  it  strong. 
Where  a  spacer  or  an  inker  works  stiffly,  let  us  make  it 


SHOLES  TYPEWRITER,  1873 

[Museum,  Buffalo  Historical  Society.] 


C.  L.  SHOLES 


329 


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330          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

work  smoothly.  Then,  depend  upon  Clephane  for  all  the 
praise  we  deserve." 

This  counsel  was  heeded,  and  Sholes  further  improved 
his  models  in  the  light  of  objections  from  Washington. 
When  the  total  output  of  machines  had  risen  to  fifty  or  so, 
produced  at  an  average  cost  of  $250,  Sholes  and  Densmore 
concluded  that-  they  had  learned  from  Clephane  as  much  as 
he  could  teach  them,  for  the  present  at  least.  They  were 
convinced  that  the  time  had  come  when  their  typewriter 
could  challenge  examination  by  an  expert  mechanic  of  the 
first  rank,  who  would  look  at  their  machine  with  a  fresh  eye, 
and  advise  them  as  to  its  manufacture  for  the  markets  of 
the  world.  Their  choice  fell  upon  George  W.  N.  Yost, 
whom  they  at  once  invited  to  Milwaukee. 

He  subjected  their  latest  model  to  a  thorough  inspection 
and  to  repeated  tests.  He  suggested  several  changes  in 
matters  of  detail;  and  he  declared  that  what  the  machine 
now  required  was  precision  in  manufacture.  He  recom- 
mended Sholes  and  Densmore  to  take  their  typewriter  to 
Eliphalet  Remington  &  Sons,  at  Ilion,  New  York,  where  it 
could  be  produced  and  constantly  improved.  The  Rem- 
ingtons were  then  manufacturing  firearms,  sewing  machines, 
and  farm  tools,  all  of  the  highest  merit.  Their  plant  in- 
cluded lathes,  drop  forges,  and  other  machinery  of  the 
latest  and  best  patterns.  Every  part  of  each  of  their  pistols 
or  rifles  was  accurately  copied  from  a  model  to  the  one- 
thousandth  part  of  an  inch.  This  system,  applied  to  type- 
writers, would  minimize  friction  to  the  utmost,  while  ren- 
dering it  easy  to  renew  parts  broken,  or  worn  out  of  true. 
More  important  than  its  admirable  plant  was  the  staff  in 
charge  of  its  experimental  work.  This  staff  was  the  proto- 
type of  many  such  staffs  now  busy  throughout  America. 
At  such  electrical  centers  as  Schenectady  and  Niagara  Falls, 
at  the  headquarters  of  oil,  steel,  paper,  and  sugar  manu- 


C.  L.  SHOLES  331 

facture,  groups  of  experts  to-day  cooperate  in  attacking  new 
and  difficult  problems,  developing  a  team-play  which  earns 
golden  rewards. 

To  such  a  group  of  organized  constructors  Sholes  and 
Densmore  displayed  their  typewriter,  early  in  1873.  It 
was  agreed  that  the  machine  should  remain  at  Ilion  to  be 
improved,  tested,  and,  in  all  likelihood,  manufactured  on 
a  large  scale  for  home  and  foreign  markets.  Thus,  at  last, 
the  typewriter  ceased  to  be  a  mere  experimental  model 
among  other  such  models,  and  took  its  place  as  a  practical 
and  vendible  article,  like  a  sewing  machine  or  a  harvester. 
It  had  been  put  together  by  amateur  mechanics ;  it  had 
been  developed  under  the  fire  of  an  unrelenting  critic;  it 
had  been  examined  and  amended  by  a  distinguished  in- 
ventor; it  was  now  to  undergo  standardization  in  a  great 
modern  factory,  to  be  produced  with  the  utmost  strength  of 
material,  the  least  possible  liability  to  derangement,  and  the 
highest  feasible  speed. 

The  Remingtons  took  hold  of  the  typewriter  with  both 
hands.  They  saw  its  possibilities,  and  brought  these  into 
actualities,  step  by  step.  They  felt  sure  that  the  patent  was 
well  worth  buying,  so  they  bought  it,  Sholes  and  Densmore 
consenting  that  the  machine  be  called  the  "  Remington." 
Sholes  for  his  interest  accepted  a  lump  sum,  which  tradi- 
tion places  at  $12,000.00.  Densmore  wisely  preferred  a 
royalty,  which  yielded  him  a  million  and  a  half.  Sholes 
continued  to  reside  in  Milwaukee,  where,  with  the  assistance 
of  his  sons,  Louis  and  Zalmon,  he  built  new  models  of 
typewriters,  constantly  simplified  in  design  and  lightened  in 
touch.  The  latest  and  best  of  these  machines,  "  The  Sholes 
Visible,"  displays  not  only  the  line  being  written,  but  all 
that  is  written.  Its  typebars  are  each  in  a  single  un jointed 
piece,  L-shaped,  and  operate  in  a  guide  from  the  instant  of 
pressing  a  key  until  its  type  impresses  the  paper.  In  few- 
ness of  parts,  perfection  of  alignment,  and  durability,  this 


332          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

machine  is  distinctly  superior  to  any  predecessor  from  its 
inventor's  hands. 

Never  stalwart  in  frame,  Sholes  had  hardly  passed  his 
prime  when  his  weak  lungs  became  infected  by  tuberculosis. 
He  fought  this  fell  disease  most  bravely  for  nine  years. 
Then,  on  February  19,  1890,  he  succumbed,  leaving  six  sons 
and  four  daughters  to  mourn  him. 

Good  reasons,  we  have  seen,  attracted  Sholes  and  Dens- 
more  to  the  Remingtons.  The  same  good  reasons  brought 
to  that  firm  James  H.  Hammond,  with  a  model  of  his 
typewriter,  embodying  not  typebars,  but  a  typewheel,  against 
which  his  paper  was  rapped  to  be  printed.  While  the 
Sholes  and  Densmore  machine  was  preferred  by  the  Ilion 
manufacturers,  the  Hammond  typewriter  has  found  favor 
with  a  large  public,  chiefly  through  the  perfection  of  its 
alignment.  Its  types  are  arranged  on  a  rotating  cylinder. 
Sister  machines  employ  only  a  segment  of  a  cylinder,  and 
find  that  enough.  These  three  plans, — convergent  type- 
bars,  a  typewheel,  and  type  on  the  segment  of  a  wheel — 
are  the  only  successful  modes  of  construction  thus  far 
devised. 

Upon  these  three  well  seasoned  plans,  hundreds  of  dif- 
ferent typewriters  have  been  invented :  most  of  them  now 
obsolete  and  forgotten.  Less  than  twenty  machines  sup- 
ply ninety-nine  per  cent,  of  the  market.  Each  of  these  sur- 
vivors is  suitable  for  some  particular  field  of  work.  Most 
of  them  are  adapted  to  ordinary  duty  in  offices,  where  hun- 
dreds of  letters,  bills,  or  reports  must  be  despatched  every 
day,  asking  only  a  fair  quality  of  output.  Other  machines 
execute  the  precise  and  neat  work  which  commends  itself 
to  teachers,  scholars,  and  editors,  to  ladies  who  write  their 
own  letters.  One  or  two  machines  appeal  to  travelers  who 
insist  upon  a  light  and  simple  mechanism,  unaffected  by  the 
jars  and  hazards  of  journeys  by  land  and  sea.  But  the  de- 
signers of  such  machines  work  within  limitations,  and  are 


C.  L.  SHOLES  333 

thoroughly  aware  that  their  models  cannot  be  placed  in  the 
front  rank. 

The  typewriter,  as  it  left  Sholes'  hands,  simply  provided 

1 I )  means  for  hitting  the  paper  with  types  at  due  intervals ; 

(2)  moving  the  paper  a  suitable  space  after  a  stroke;  (3) 
moving  the  paper  lengthwise  at  the  end  of  a  line;  (4)  strik- 
ing a  bell  near  the  end  of  a  line.     To  these  facilities  have 
since  been  added:  (5)  means  of  retracing  a  line  in  correct- 
ing an  error;  (6)  varying  the  distances  apart  at  which  lines 
may  be  written;  (7)  using  a  shift-key  so  that  at  will  one  of 
two  characters  may  be  written  by  each  key.     An  upper  case 
"  B  "  and  a  lower  case  "  b  "  are,  let  us  say,  engraved  on 
a   block   attached   to   the   "b"   key.     When   that   key   is 
struck  "  b  "  will  print,  as  "  B  "  is  too  far  off  to  impress 
itself.     Lowering  the  shift-key  moves  the  carriage  into  such 
a  position  that  "  B  "  imprints  itself  when  the  key  is  struck. 

To  know  the  typewriter  at  its  best  we  must  use  a  standard 
machine  built  for  office  work.  We  will  find  it  admirable  in 
its  accuracy  and  beauty  of  characters,  its  range  and  speed. 
It  writes  in  every  language  of  the  world,  including  the 
Jewish,  which  proceeds  from  right  to  left,  a  direction  op- 
posite to  that  of  ordinary  script.  Typewriters  have  been 
adapted  to  producing  musical  scores.  In  machines  whose 
product  is  to  be  read  by  blind  folk,  Braille  and  other  codes 
replace  the  usual  characters.  In  an  ingenious  machine  a 
stenographer  is  provided  with  shorthand  symbols  instead 
of  ordinary  letters.  Last  of  all,  electricity  has  been  invoked 
to  lessen  the  toil  of  manipulation  which,  continued  hour 
after  hour,  becomes  fatiguing. 

No  penman,  however  skilful,  can  match  the  legibility  and 
compactness  of  a  typewriter.  When  he  writes  a  letter  with 
a  pen,  he  can  take  a  single  copy,  and  no  more,  on  a  wet 
sheet  of  tissue  paper  in  a  letter  press.  A  typewriter  with  a 
brass  platen  affords  as  many  as  sixty  copies  from  carbon 
paper.  With  similar  carbon  sheets  a  bookkeeper  can  at 


334          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

one  operation  write  an  entry  in  a  sales-book,  and  duplicate 
its  lines  for  a  bill.  A  tabulator,  controlled  by  a  touch, 
keeps  all  the  figures  of  an  account  in  their  proper  columns. 
Yet  more :  an  attachment,  smaller  than  a  lady's  watch,  adds 
and  subtracts  these  figures  with  precision,  so  that  they  may 
be  printed  as  totals  or  remainders.  This  recalls  that  Sholes 
first  of  all  invented  a  numbering  machine,  which  feat,  as 
we  have  seen,  led  him  to  devising  his  typewriter.  His  suc- 
cessors in  one  instrument  unite  computation  with  writing. 

Long  ago  typewriters  entered  into  rivalry  with  printers 
as  well  as  with  penmen.  A  circular,  or  a  program,  was 
transferred  from  a  typewritten  sheet  to  a  gelatine  mold 
from  which  forty  to  fifty  copies  could  be  neatly  struck  off. 
To-day  a  better  method  yields  as  many  as  two  thousand 
copies,  and  with  more  despatch:  the  types  of  the  writing 
machine  are  used  to  cut  a  stencil  in  a  film  of  stiff  wax  from 
which,  on  a  small  rotary  press,  copies  are  rapidly  printed  in 
ink.  These  and  many  another  golden  harvest  are  to-day 
reaped  from  machines  derived  from  Sholes'  great  invention. 
In  all  machines,  heavy  or  light,  simple  or  intricate,  elegant 
or  solid,  certain  principles  of  design  are  indispensable  for 
success.  Let  a  few  of  these  principles  be  reviewed : 

The  carriage  must  be  strong  and  move  firmly  in  its  slide, 
and  the  typebars  should  have  a  leverage  as  simple  and  rigid 
as  possible.  These  features  insure  good  alignment,  always 
in  evidence.  Nobody  can  tell  from  a  glance  at  a  page 
at  what  pace  it  was  typewritten ;  but  a  glance  at  once  de- 
tects any  irregularity  of  line.  When  a  machine  is  solidly 
built,  both  quick  operation  and  heavy  manifolding  are  borne 
for  years  with  little  wear  and  tear.  Operators  usually  de- 
mand speed,  and  speed  requires  a  rapid  escapement.  How- 
ever rapid  an  escapement  may  be,  it  is  never  instantaneous, 
so  that,  with  a  swift  pace,  good  alignment  is  difficult.  This 
shows  how  two  wants  may  oppose  each  other,  so  that  no 
machine  whatever  can  satisfy  in  the  highest  degree  every 


C.  L.  SHOLES  335 

want.  Perfect  alignment  must  be  paid  for  in  a  slight  re- 
duction of  speed.  At  very  quick  paces  there  is  an  unavoid- 
able loss  of  neatness,  and  an  increase  in  errors. 

Next  to  speed,  an  operator  desires  ease  of  working.  He 
does  not  always  get  it.  Some  machines  are  more  than  twice 
as  resistant  as  others.  In  stiff  machines,  with  a  long  play  or 
dip  of  the  keys,  fatigue  sets  in  early  in  the  day,  to  be 
registered  in  lapses  due  to  no  other  cause.  Ball-bearing 
carriages  were  introduced  about  1896,  easing  the  labor  of 
operation  in  a  remarkable  degree.  Where  these  bearings 
are  placed  in  V-shaped  runways,  there  is  at  times  a  liabil- 
ity to  uneven  wear,  causing  sluggish  movement  of  a  car- 
nage. Most  machines  of  the  best  grade  are  now  fitted  with 
roller-bearings,  which  wear  uniformly  and  give  no  trouble. 

Operators  like  a  quick  and  easy  machine:  their  next 
preference  is  for  a  machine  with  its  writing  in  plain  sight. 
Blind  machines  came  first,  and  many  typists  became  so  ac- 
customed to  them  that  they  cling  to  them  still.  These 
operators,  through  sheer  force  of  habit,  when  they  work  a 
visible  machine,  are  apt  to  lose  somewhat  of  their  self- 
confidence,  and  refer  too  often  to  their  notes.  With  blind 
machines  they  keep  their  eyes  on  these  notes,  except  at  odd 
moments  when  they  glance  at  their  keys.  But  to-day  the 
majority  of  beginners  adopt  visible  machines,  and  with  ad- 
vantage. They  are  thus  enabled  to  note  an  error,  and  cor- 
rect it,  with  the  minimum  of  trouble  and  delay.  Visible 
machines  are  steadily  gaining  ground,  and  will  in  a  few 
years,  in  all  probability,  hold  the  field. 

Shift-key  machines  ask  shorter  trips  from  an  operator's 
fingers  than  machines  without  a  shift-key.  Here  another 
case  of  force  of  habit  comes  to  view.  A  typist  brought  up 
on  a  "  Yost,"  or  a  "  Smith-Premier "  machine,  with  its 
double  keyboard,  may  be  induced  to  adopt  a  shift-key  ma- 
chine. But  in  a  few  weeks  or  months  the  operator  is  apt  to 
return  to  the  old  machine.  Yet  these  instances  grow  fewer 


336          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

year  by  year.  For  most  purposes  shift-key  machines  econ- 
omize time  and  energy,  and  with  this  advantage  they  are 
driving  their  competitors  from  the  market.  In  some  minor 
tasks,  cataloguing  and  directory  work,  for  example,  where 
there  are  frequent  changes  from  small  letters  to  capitals, 
and  vice  versa,  an  old-fashioned  machine  may  turn  out 
more  work  in  an  hour  than  any  other. 

A  machine  as  radically  novel  as  the  typewriter,  discovers, 
or  creates,  as  you  please,  a  round  of  aptitudes  unimagined 
before  its  advent.  When  the  Sholes  machines  first  appeared 
their  operators  were  perforce  clumsy  and  slow.  Practice 
soon  heightened  their  speed,  and  operators  to  whom  speed 
was  impossible  simply  dropped  out  of  the  running.  From 
that  time  to  the  present  hour,  the  pace  of  working  has 
gradually  increased.  This  is  due,  in  part,  to  better  ma- 
chines,— of  easier  touch,  of  keyboards  not  only  more  com- 
pact, but  so  arranged  that  an  operator's  fingers  take  the 
shortest  paths  possible.  To-day,  also,  more  fingers  of  each 
hand  are  brought  into  play,  and  are  better  taught  their  busi- 
ness, than  when  typing  was  a  novelty. 

Thirty  years  ago  beginners  seldom  used  more  than  one 
or  two  fingers  of  the  right  hand,  employing  the  left  hand 
scarcely  at  all.  To-day  touch-systems  teach  the  use  of 
all  the  fingers  of  both  hands,  instructing  the  thumbs  to  move 
the  space-bars  and  shift-keys.  These  systems,  when  mas- 
tered, greatly  promote  speed.  An  expert  operator  of  the 
first  rank  keeps  his  eyes  fixed  on  his  "  copy,"  never  glanc- 
ing at  his  keys,  which,  indeed,  may  be  blank.  In  ac- 
quiring this  remarkable  facility  the  first  step  is  to  cover 
two  or  three  characters  with  paper,  so  that  the  learner  must 
feel  for  them.  When  the  places  of  these  characters  have 
become  familiar,  two  or  three  more  characters  are  hidden 
from  view,  and  so  on,  until  the  whole  keyboard  is  blank. 
At  exhibitions,  a  pace  may  rise  to  200  words  a  minute,  so  as 
to  advertise  the  "  Speedwell,"  let  us  say,  as  the  conqueror. 


C.  L.  SHOLES  337 

But  words  thus  shot  on  paper  may  have  been  committed 
to  memory,  or  may  be  so  familiar  as  to  be  written  with 
much  greater  ease  than  the  words  of  an  ordinary  dictation 
or  copy.  What  means  most  to  an  employer,  day  by  day, 
is  the  net  amount  of  really  good  work  that  a  typist  turns 
out.  A  lightning  pace  is  bought  too  dear  at  the  cost  of 
many  errors.  Employers  agree  that  the  typists  who  serve 
best  are  men  and  women  of  education  and  culture,  who  are 
never  in  doubt  about  spelling  or  syntax,  or  the  best  form 
to  give  a  sentence.  A  typist  of  this  class  may  strike  the 
keys  with  but  one  or  two  fingers,  and  yet  leave  far  behind 
an  operator  who  is  master  of  the  touch  system,  but  who 
lacks  training  and  the  literary  sense. 

"  It  is  well,"  says  Arthur  G.  Seal,  of  New  York,  "  for 
every  beginner  to  learn  under  a  competent  teacher,  so  as  to 
form  only  good  habits,  and  understand,  from  the  start,  all 
that  may  be  done  with  a  machine.  Pupils  at  first  are  apt  to 
strike  keys  too  hard.  A  light,  firm  touch  is  best  Opera- 
tors who  keep  time  with  their  keys  find  their  toil  distinctly 
lightened,  just  as  in  telegraphy." 


ELIAS  HOWE 

DR.  OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES  used  to  say  that  the  Dis- 
covery of  America,  in  1492,  astonished  him  less  than  the 
Forgetting  of  America,  thousands  of  years  before.  Colum- 
bus arose  ages  after  the  day  when  explorers  from  Asia  were 
able  to  find  their  way  to  America ;  century  by  century  their 
descendants  fell  away  in  skill  and  nerve  as  navigators,  until 
America  faded  out  from  the  legends  of  every  other  con- 
tinent of  the  seas.  Almost  within  our  own  time  there  have 
been  parallel  cases  where  not  a  great  discovery,  but  a 
great  invention,  has  had  its  birth  and  a  forgetting.  Of  this 
we  have  a  striking  example  in  the  mechanism  for  stitching. 
In  1790,  Thomas  Saint  patented  in  England  a  chain-stitch 
sewing  machine  of  capital  design.  With  the  insight  of 
genius  he  created  features  which  appear  in  good  machines 
to-day, — an  overhanging  arm  of  goodly  girth,  and  a  hori- 
zontal cloth-plate.  His  intermittent  feed  was  effective; 
his  continuous  thread  had  tighteners  above  and  below  its 
needle.  And  yet  this  machine  was  virtually  forgotten  for 
sixty  years.  One  inventor  after  another  followed  Saint  in 
planning  sewing  machines,  only  to  miss  points  of  excellence 
which  Saint  had  included  in  his  model.  Why  was  this 
stitcher,  so  ingenious  and  efficient,  allowed  to  fall  into  this 
neglect  ?  Simply  because  its  inventor  offered  people  a  good 
thing  before  they  were  ready  for  it. 

Let  us  be  just  to  the  British  folk  of  the  time  of  Thomas 
Saint.  They  lived  in  what  was  still  the  day  of  tools, 
while  we  live  in  the  era  of  machines.  To-day  we  are 
surrounded  and  served  by  uncounted  contrivances,  all  in- 
vented within  the  past  century  or  so,  and  pressed  upon 
public  acceptance  by  systems  of  advertisement  and  can- 

338 


[From  the  painting-  by  Joseph  Eliot,  owned  by  the  late  Mrs.  Jane  R.  Cald. 
well,  New  York,  daughter  of  Klias  Howe.] 


ELIAS  HOWE 


339 


SAINT'S  SEWING  MACHINE,  1790 

It  possessed  (i)  a  horizontal  cloth-plate;  (2)  an  overhanging 
arm,  on  the  end  of  which  was  (3)  a  vertically  reciprocating  straight 
needle,  and  on  the  top  of  which  was  (4)  a  thread  spool,  giving  out 
its  thread  continuously;  (5)  an  intermittent  automatic  feed  between 
stitches;  made  the  chain-stitch;  and  had  thread  tighteners  above 
and  below. 

The  machine  consisted  of  a  bed-plate,  a,  with  a  post,  b,  having  a 
projecting  arm  on  which  was  the  thread  spool,  c;  a  shaft,  rotated  by 
a  hand-crank  and  carrying  cams  by  which  all  the  motions  of  the 
machine  were  obtained;  the  same  overhanging  arm  carried  a  spin- 
dle, dt  for  tightening  the  stitch,  and  a  needle  and  awl-carrier,  e,  into 
which  a  needle,/,  and  awl,  g,  were  secured  by  set-screws,  and  moved 
by  cams,  h  /,  on  the  shaft,  k.  The  needle  was  notched  at  its  lower 
end  to  push  the  thread  through  the  hole  made  by  the  awl,  and  thus 
form  a  loop.  The  work  was  supported  on  a  box,  /,  sliding  between 
guides  m, w.and  advanced  by  a  screw,  «,  turned  by  a  toothed  wheel, 
o,  which  was  engaged  by  a  projection  from  an  arm  depending 
from  the  shaft,  k,  at  each  revolution  of  the  latter.  A  looper  was 
operated  by  the  bent  point  of  the  spindle,  d,  in  a  manner  still  em- 
ployed in  some  of  the  chain-stitch  machines.  The  screw,  r,  served 
to  adjust  the  box,  /,  on  the  guide-plate,  and  provision  was  made  for 
varying  stitches  for  different  kinds  of  work. 

[From  Knight's  American  Mechanical  Dictionary.    Copyright  by  Hurd  & 
Houghton,  Boston,  1876.] 


340          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

vassing  which  have  become  arts  taught  in  colleges.  To-day 
every  American  family  above  the  line  of  dire  poverty  has 
machines  for  sewing  and  washing,  in  many  cases  impelled 
by  the  electricity  aglow  in  millions  of  our  lamps.  Electric 
motors  and  heaters,  fans  and  vacuum  sweepers,  are  com- 
mon in  households,  offices,  and  factories.  As  in  the  city,  so 
in  the  country,  with  its  multiplied  seeders  and  cultivators, 
mowers,  harvesters,  and  corn  shellers.  Both  in  town  and 
country  we  constantly  employ  elevators  and  motor-cars, 
trolleys,  telegraph,  and  telephones,  so  that,  from  dawn  to 
bedtime,  we  are  as  familiar  with  elaborate  machinery  as  the 
neighbors  of  Thomas  Saint  were  with  pins  and  needles, 
hammers,  gimlets,  and  chisels.  Four  generations  ago  there 
were  probably  fewer  than  a  thousand  power-looms  in  all 
England.  Little  marvel  that  Saint's  stitcher  was  looked  at 
askance  in  a  world  that  felt  no  need  of  it,  whose  peace 
and  quiet  it  threatened  to  disturb.  Saint's  drawing,  evi- 
dently taken  from  a  model,  gathered  dust  in  the  British 
Patent  Office  for  two  generations,  during  which  it  might 
have  rendered  inestimable  service  to  designers.  But  these 
designers  neglected  the  rule  which  bids  an  inventor  begin 
his  work  by  a  thorough  survey  of  what  other  inventors  have 
already  done. 

Next  in  rank  to  Thomas  Saint  in  time  and  in  talents  is 
Barthelemi  Thimonnier,  who,  in  1830,  patented  his  sewing 
machine  in  France.  Eleven  years  later  he  had  eighty  of 
them  at  work  on  army  uniforms.  He  used  a  crochet  needle, 
whose  barbed  point  formed  two  hundred  chain-stitches  a 
minute;  his  feed  included  a  presser-foot,  reinvented  long 
afterward.  The  tailors  and  seamstresses  who  saw  this 
quick  machine  at  work  were  afraid  it  would  throw  them  into 
idleness;  so  they  mobbed  Thimonnier's  workroom,  and 
smashed  his  machines  in  pieces.  Seven  years  afterward  he 
resumed  their  manufacture,  but  without  financial  success: 
he  died  in  1857. 


ELIAS  HOWE  341 

To-day  a  toy  which  executes  chain-stitches  like  those  of 
Thimonnier  may  be  bought  for  a  dollar.  Its  mechanism, 
which  may  be  understood  at  a  glance,  involves  much  the 
same  principles  as  sister  machines  more  elaborate  and 
costly.  Its  one  thread  is  carried  in  an  eye-pointed  needle 
which  descends  below  the  cloth.  As  this  needle  rises  it 
throws  out  a  loop  of  thread,  which  is  seized  and  opened 
by  a  rotary  hook.  Through  this  loop  the  needle  passes  in 
its  next  descent,  when  the  operation  is  repeated  until 
stitch  after  stitch  forms  a  neat  chain.  Here,  reduced  to 
their  utmost  simplicity,  are  the  essentials  of  a  sewing  mech- 
anism. First,  a  needle  to  take  a  thread  through  cloth,  with 
a  hook  to  form  a  stitch.  Next,  a  spring  to  keep  the  thread 
at  proper  tension ;  with  a  holding  surface  to  keep  the  cloth 
motionless  at  the  moment  of  stitching,  and  then  move  it  for- 
ward by  a  stitch-length. 

A  chain-stitch  has  two  drawbacks:  it  unravels  when  a 
break  in  the  thread  is  followed  by  a  slight  pull ;  and  much 
more  thread  is  required  than  in  lock-stitching,  an  item  of 
importance,  especially  when  the  thread  is  costly  silk.  The 
chain-stitch  machines  of  Saint,  of  Thimonnier,  and  their 
successors,  have  been  far  outdone  by  the  lock-stitch  ma- 
chines of  a  later  day.  Their  two  threads  interlace  in  the 
middle  of  the  sewn  fabric,  so  as  to  form  a  neat  line  of 
stitches  on  each  side.  For  some  purposes,  as  in  sewing 
garments  which  are  to  be  taken  apart  after  a  season's  wear, 
a  chain-stitch  machine  is  often  preferred.  Chain-stitches, 
too,  are  employed  to  ornament  dresses,  gloves,  cushions,  and 
so  on.  Particularly  pretty  are  the  double  chain-stitches 
formed  by  the  Grover  and  Baker  machine,  which  uses  two 
threads.  The  first  machine  of  this  kind  was  invented  by 
John  Fisher,  of  Nottingham,  England,  when  he  was  only 
nineteen  years  of  age.  He  patented  it  on  December  7, 
1844.  Gloves,  with  linings,  were  stitched  by  this  machine. 
It  was  only  the  ornamental  effect  that  Fisher  and  his 


342          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

customers  looked  at.  They  missed  the  vastly  more  im- 
portant fact  that  the  machine  had  sewn  together  the  leather 
of  a  glove  and  its  lining.  One  would  suppose  that  an  in- 
ventor of  Fisher's  talent  could  easily  have  devised  and  added 
suitable  feed  and  tension  mechanisms,  such  as  were  de- 
signed by  many  other  ingenious  men  both  in  America  and 
England. 

The  first  lock-stitch  machine  was  devised  and  built  by 
Walter  Hunt  in  New  York,  between  1832  and  1834.  At 
the  end  of  a  vibrating  arm  it  held  a  curved  needle  with  an 
eye  at  its  point,  through  which  passed  the  upper  thread. 
Its  lower  thread  was  borne  in  a  shuttle  thrown  within  a 
loop  formed  by  the  needle  and  beneath  it.  Whether  this 
machine  worked  well  or  ill  is  not  recorded.  It  does  not 
seem  to  have  satisfied  its  inventor,  as  he  did  not  apply  for  a 
patent.  He  took  many  steps  toward  his  goal,  and  then 
omitted  the  one  final  step  which  would  have  brought  him 
to  the  winning  post.  Hunt  was  a  man  of  restless  versatil- 
ity, and  soon  busied  himself  with  inventions  vastly  less  im- 
portant than  the  sewing  machine, — one  of  these  was  a  mill 
which  turned  out  paper  collars,  bearing  stitches  in  a  capital 
imitation.  After  the  amazing  victory  of  the  Howe  ma- 
chine, Hunt  sought  a  patent.  It  was  refused  on  the  score 
of  abandonment  twenty  years  before. 

Now  we  come  to  Elias  Howe,  and  to  the  question,  Why 
did  he  succeed  where  others  failed,  and  by  what  steps 
did  he  arrive  at  his  great  triumph?  Elias  Howe  was  born 
in  Spencer,  Massachusetts,  about  twenty  miles  from 
Worcester,  on  July  9,  1819,  in  a  family  of  sturdy  New  Eng- 
land stock,  endowed  with  an  extra  share  of  Yankee  ingenu- 
ity and  gumption.  An  uncle,  William  Howe,  devised  a 
truss  for  roofs  and  bridges  which  enjoys  vogue  to  this  day. 
Another  uncle,  Tyler  Howe,  was  an  inventor  on  a  less  am- 
bitious plane:  he  designed  a  spring  bed  and  other  simple 
aids  to  household  comfort.  These  two  worthies,  and  their 


ELIAS  HOWE  343 

famous  nephew,  Elias  Howe,  are  commemorated  in  their 
native  village  by  a  handsome  monument.  Elias  Howe, 
senior,  who  gave  his  son  the  same  name  as  his  own,  had 
eight  children ;  so,  with  all  his  hard  work,  he  remained  poor. 
He  was  first  of  all  a  farmer,  but,  with  the  reluctant  soil 
of  Worcester  County,  his  harvests  were  scant,  and  he  eked 
out  a  livelihood  by  grinding  meal  for  his  neighbors,  by 
sawing  and  planing  lumber,  by  splitting  shingles. 

Early  in  the  last  century  such  a  family  as  the  Howes  car- 
ried on  some  simple  handicraft,  in  which  their  children 
could  take  part.  At  six  years  of  age,  Elias  worked  with 
his  brothers  and  sisters  at  stitching  wire  teeth  into  cards  for 
cotton  mills.  Later  on  he  attended  the  village  school  in 
winter,  and  in  summer  took  a  hand  in  farm  work  and  his 
father's  mills.  Day  by  day  this  observing  boy  saw  what 
machinery  did  to  lighten  toil  and  multiply  its  fruit.  And, 
besides  this,  he  received  a  cultivation  of  hand  and  eye,  of 
good  sense  and  resourcefulness,  which  made  his  training, 
unsystematic  though  it  was,  a  capital  preparation  for  his 
labors  as  an  inventor.  One  day  he  trued  a  grindstone, 
glazed  a  window,  and  soldered  a  tea-kettle,  next  morning  he 
nailed  shingles  on  a  leaky  roof ;  the  week  afterward  saw 
him  building  a  corn  crib,  rearing  a  well  sweep,  and  bringing 
from  the  wood  lot  a  new  prop  for  his  mother's  clothes- 
line. And  meantime  he  was  acquiring,  too,  more  than  mere 
handiness;  he  received  the  sterling  discipline  of  sticking 
to  a  task,  whether  he  liked  it  or  not,  until  that  task  was 
finished.  From  boyhood,  as  long  as  he  lived,  Elias  Howe 
had  the  unrelaxing  grip  of  a  bulldog ;  when  once  his  mind 
was  made  up,  he  was  deaf  to  dissuasion  and  proof  against 
discouragement.  He  had  other  traits  which  smoothed  his 
path  for  purposes  firmly  maintained.  As  a  boy  he  was 
lively  and  play-loving,  with  chums  a-plenty.  As  a  man  he 
was  kind  and  sociable,  so  that,  in  his  darkest  days,  he  never 
lacked  a  friend  to  proffer  .him  aid  and  comfort. 


344          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

In  his  twelfth  year  he  went  to  live  with  a  farmer  in  the 
neighborhood,  intending  to  remain  with  him  until  he  had 
thoroughly  mastered  the  routine  of  planting,  tilling,  and 
reaping.  But  young  Howe  suffered  from  a  lameness  which, 
though  slight,  was  disabling;  this  made  farm  drudgery  a 
distress  to  him,  so  that,  within  a  year,  he  returned  home  to 
resume  work  in  his  father's  mills.  This  continued  till  he 
was  sixteen.  At  that  critical  age,  with  new  ambition  astir, 
a  friend  told  him  how  bright  and  busy  a  place  Lowell  was, 
where  Elias  could  earn  much  more  than  at  Spencer,  and 
have  a  much  better  time.  So  to  Lowell  he  went,  taking  a 
learner's  place  in  a  large  factory  of  cotton  machinery. 
Here  he  remained  for  two  years,  when  the  panic  of  1837 
closed  every  mill  in  town  and  sent  him  adrift.  He  went  to 
Cambridge,  and  there  found  work  in  a  machine  shop,  tak- 
ing charge  of  a  hemp-carder  invented  by  Professor  Tread- 
well,  of  Harvard  College.  As  a  shopmate  and  roommate, 
Howe  had  his  cousin,  Nathaniel  P.  Banks,  who  became  a 
Major-General  of  the  United  States  Army,  and  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Representatives.  After  a  few  months  of 
hemp-carding,  a  task  not  to  his  mind,  Howe  heard  of 
pleasant  work  in  Boston  at  better  wages.  Thither  he  pro- 
ceeded, engaging  himself  to  Ari  Davis,  on  Cornhill,  a  manu- 
facturer and  repairer  of  chronometers,  surveying  instru- 
ments, and  the  like.  Davis  had  invented  a  dovetailing  ma- 
chine which  had  brought  him  some  profit,  and  his  head  was 
brimful  of  plans  for  other  machines,  from  which  he  ex- 
pected profits  much  larger.  He  was  eccentric  in  manner, 
and  peculiar  in  dress,  so  that  he  did  not  seem  to  be  as 
shrewd  as  he  really  was.  Often  his  judgment  was  in 
request  by  inventors  who  brought  him  their  experi- 
mental models,  or  who  wished  his  opinion  on  their 
schemes.  What  place  beneath  the  sky  could  have  been  bet- 
ter for  our  young  mechanic  from  Spencer  than  this  shop  of 
Ari  Davis? 


ELIAS  HOWE  345 

One  morning  Davis  had  a  caller  who  was  trying  to  in- 
vent a  knitting  machine.  When  his  model  had  been  duly 
inspected,  Davis  said :  "  Why  do  you  bother  with  a  knit- 
ting machine ;  why  don't  you  make  a  sewing  machine  ?  " 
"  I  wish  I  could,"  replied  his  visitor,  "  but  it  can't  be  done." 
"  Oh,  yes,  it  can,"  said  Davis ;  "  I  can  make  a  sewing 
machine  myself."  "  Well,"  responded  his  caller,  "  you 
do  it,  and  you  will  have  an  independent  fortune."  Howe 
overheard  this  as  he  sat  nearby,  and  from  that  mo- 
ment the  current  of  his  life  was  changed.  As  he  brooded 
over  what  Davis  had  carelessly  said,  he  thought :  "  I 
may  be  the  man  to  invent  that  sewing  machine  and  win 
a  fortune." 

He  built  upon  solid  ground  as  he  thus  quietly  resolved 
upon  his  great  task.  He  had  shown  ingenuity  in  adapting 
and  improving  instruments  for  Davis's  customers.  From 
Davis  himself,  sanguine  as  to  the  future,  disrespectful  as 
to  the  past,  he  had  caught  the  conviction  that  most  tools 
and  machines  are  faulty  and  slow,  and  should  be  improved 
or  supplanted,  the  sooner  the  better.  In  skill  and  quickness 
Howe  was  surpassed  by  more  than  one  of  his  shopmates, 
and  he  always  said  that  he  never  studied  the  abstract  prin- 
ciples which  underlie  mechanical  construction.  But  if  he 
was  ignorant  of  mechanical  philosophy,  he  had  mechanical 
practice  at  his  fingers'  ends,  at  work  every  day,  as  he 
was,  on  time-pieces,  theodolites,  and  binnacles.  From  the 
time  he  had  played  as  a  boy  in  his  father's  mills  he  had 
observed  the  uses  of  pawls  and  ratchets,  levers  and  cams, 
springs  and  weights,  as  they  actuated  clockwork  and  other 
simple  machinery.  In  the  workshops  of  Lowell  and  Cam- 
bridge he  had  for  years  together  seen  lathes,  spinning- 
frames,  and  power-looms  at  work  and  under  repair,  so  that 
his  memory  was  a  storehouse  from  which  to  draw  the  ele- 
ments of  a  sewing  machine.  And  these  elements  he  must 


346          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

now  carefully  choose,  and  skilfully  combine  as  a  compact 
and  effective  unit.* 

In  physique  Howe  was  not  robust :  his  strength  was  of  the 
brain  rather  than  of  the  body.  Yet  this  man  with  a  soft 
eye,  and  a  placid  Quakerly  face,  had  a  sagacity  that  served 
him  much  better  than  mere  shrewdness  would  have  done. 
His  comrades  were  wont  to  say  that  he  disliked  unneces- 
sary toil,  or,  indeed,  toil  of  any  kind.  Supposing  this  to 
be  true,  the  fact  was  all  in  his  favor,  for  what  is  Invention 
but  the  wise  abridging  or  abolishing  of  toil  ?  And  we  must 
remember  that  Davis  paid  him  only  nine  dollars  a  week,  and 
this  had  to  support  himself,  his  wife,  and  three  children. 
It  was  uncushioned  poverty  that  pressed  him  to  turn  to  all 
possible  account  such  ingenuity  as  in  him  lay.  His  labor  at 
that  time,  says  James  Parton,  was  so  tiring  that  when  he 
reached  home  he  was  sometimes  too  exhausted  to  eat,  and 
went  to  bed  longing  to  stay  there  for  ever  and  ever. 

After  brooding  four  years  on  the  talk  he  had  overheard 
at  Davis's  shop,  Howe,  in  1843,  began  to  build  his  sewing 
machine.  At  first  he  took  a  wrong  track;  as  he  watched 
his  wife  plying  her  needle  on  a  seam,  he  imitated  her  mo- 
tions, one  after  another.  Long  before  this,  in  1829,  Heil- 
mann  had  pierced  an  eye  in  the  middle  of  a  needle,  so  that 
it  could  be  worked  to  and  fro  without  reversal,  in  his  em- 
broidering machine.  Howe  made  such  a  needle  which,  duly 
threaded,  he  passed  by  pincers  through  two  thicknesses  of 
cloth.  The  stitches  were  so  irregular  that  his  attempt  was 
an  utter  failure.  One  day,  in  1844,  the  question  flashed 
upon  him :  "  Is  it  necessary  that  a  machine  should  sew  with 

*The  tailor-bird  of  India  uses  its  bill  in  sewing  leaf  to  leaf  for  a 
nest.  Shreds  of  wool  or  silk,  vegetable  fibers  or  even  the  spinnings 
of  spiders  serve  as  thread.  Dr.  Jerdan  once  saw  a  tailor-bird  watch 
a  garment-sewer  until  for  a  moment  he  rose  from  his  bench.  At 
once  it  seized  a  few  bits  of  cotton  thread  from  the  floor,  and  flew  off 
with  them  in  triumph.  Mr.  Layard  describes  a  nest  sewn  from  a 
dozen  oleander  leaves  with  cocoa-nut  fiber. 


ELIAS  HOWE  347 

the  same  motions  as  a  human  hand  ?  No ;  there  may  be  an- 
other kind  of  stitch  than  that  wrought  by  a  seamstress, 
quite  as  serviceable,  though  sewn  by  sinews  of  brass  and 
steel."  This  thought  was  the  turning-point  which  divided 
failure  from  success.  It  is  likely  that  he  had  seen  chain- 
stitch  machines,  for  they  were  not  uncommon,  but  he  wished 
to  build  something  better.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  Hunt's  contrivances  ever  came  under  his  notice.  On 
lines  wholly  original,  Howe  imagined  a  lock-stitch  machine, 
and  embarked  on  the  labor  of  giving  it  form  and  substance. 
Long  before  he  was  born,  thatchers  and  lacemakers  had 
pierced  their  needles  with  eyes  near  their  points,  so  as  to 
shorten  their  paths,  and  save  thread  from  undue  friction. 
Such  needles  had  been  adopted  by  Walter  Hunt  in  1840,  and 
had  been  patented  in  England  by  Newton  and  Archbold,  in 
1841,  for  their  chain-stitch  machine.  Howe  adopted  this 
eye-pointed  needle,  and  united  with  it  a  shuttle  such  as  had 
clacked  around  him  in  looms  all  his  life.  He  was  wise  in 
thus  choosing  a  loom-stitch  where  one  thread  interweaves 
itself  firmly  with  another ;  and  yet,  when  he  turned  his  back 
on  chain-stitch  machines  it  was  only  after  they  had  taught 
him  two  golden  lessons.  First,  how  a  needle,  fixed  in  a 
holder  which  it  never  leaves,  may  vibrate  at  a  pace  duly 
varied.  Second,  how  a  simple  mechanism  may  be  timed  so 
that  a  needle,  when  below  its  cloth,  expands  one  loop  of 
thread  for  the  admission  of  a  second  such  loop.  The  new 
devices  he  had  to  invent  were  chiefly  a  shuttle  duly  laden 
with  a  lower  thread,  and  the  means  to  throw  this  shuttle  at 
proper  intervals  through  loops  of  an  upper  thread.  Howe 
at  this  time  was  no  longer  in  the  employ  of  Davis :  he  was 
at  work  on  his  own  account,  giving  every  moment  he  could 
spare  to  his  model.  He  completed  it  toward  the  close  of 
1844,  and  it  sewed  a  fairly  good  seam,  with  promise  of 
sewing  still  better  when  improved  in  plan  and  workman- 
ship. 


348          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Howe's  father  at  this  time  was  living  in  Cambridge, 
where  he  was  cutting  palm  leaves  into  strips  for  hats  on  a 
machine  invented  by  his  brother  William.  Elias,  junior, 
with  a  view  to  economy,  went  to  live  at  his  father's  house, 
setting  up  a  lathe  so  as  to  execute  any  odd  jobs  that  might 
be  offered  him.  During  the  next  few  months  he  worked 
at  little  else  than  his  sewing  machine,  exciting  his  neighbors 
to  remark  that  he  was  simply  wasting  his  time.  His  odd 
jobs  were  so  few  that  often  the  inventor  was  without  a 
dollar  in  his  pocket.  His  father  was  anxious  to  help  him, 
but  could  do  nothing,  as  a  fire  had  destroyed  the  palm-leaf 
machine  and  swept  away  all  his  earnings.  As  Elias  Howe 
from  day  to  day  proceeded  with  his  model,  he  clearly  saw 
that  his  design  would  miss  a  fair  test  if  his  model  were  not 
built  with  the  same  precision  as  a  clock.  And  where  were 
the  means  for  such  an  outlay  to  come  from,  when  money 
for  bread  was  frequently  lacking? 

Just  then  a  friend  came  to  his  rescue,  George  Fisher,  a 
fuel  dealer.  He  had  recently  come  into  a  legacy,  and  as 
this  windfall  was  still  warm  in  his  pocket,  he  was  in  the 
humor  to  take  up  any  promising  speculation.  Many  a 
time  had  he  heard  Howe's  confident  hopes  of  triumph  and 
fortune,  and  now  Fisher  was  prevailed  upon  to  become  a 
partner  with  Howe  in  his  great  project  of  a  sewing  machine. 
Fisher  was  to  receive  the  Howe  family  into  his  house  as 
guests ;  and  while  Howe  was  perfecting  his  model,  Fisher 
was  to  adv*ance  $500  toward  buying  materials  and  tools.  If 
the  machine  proved  worthy  of  a  patent,  a  half  share  therein 
was  to  be  Fisher's  property.  Early  in  1844,  Howe  took  up 
his  quarters  with  Fisher,  installing  his  lathe  in  a  low-studded 
attic.  For  a  long  time  nobody  but  Fisher  shared  Howe's 
hopes  of  victory.  Fisher  once  testified  in  court :  "  I  was 
the  only  one  of  his  neighbors  and  friends  who  had  any 
confidence  in  the  success  of  his  invention.  Howe  was  gen- 


ELIAS  HOWE  349 

erally  regarded  as  visionary  in  undertaking  anything  of 
the  kind,  and  I  was  thought  foolish  to  assist  him." 

During  the  winter  of  1844-45,  Howe  labored  steadily  at 
his  machine.  So  clear  and  vivid  was  his  imagination  that 
he  seemed  to  be  copying  a  model  as  it  stood  before  him, 
instead  of  giving  form  to  conceptions  which  were  as  yet 
conceptions  only.  This  picturing  faculty  had  the  happy  ef- 
fect that  Howe  was  not  delayed  by  a  single  misfit  as  part 
joined  part  week  after  week.  By  April,  1845,  the  stitch- 
forming  mechanism  was  advanced  to  the  point  where  it 
sewed  with  evenness  and  smoothness.  Within  less  than  a 
month  Howe  finished  his  model,  and  his  invention,  in  every 
essential  feature,  was  complete.  In  July  it  sewed  a  suit  of 
clothes  for  Fisher,  and  another  suit  for  himself.  These 
garments  were  of  strong  material,  yet  their  stitches  out- 
lasted the  cloth.  Every  contrivance  in  Howe's  original 
model  has  since  his  day  been  bettered  or  transmuted,  for 
what  is  one  inventor  as  compared  with  all  other  inventors? 
And  many  new  devices  which  never  entered  the  head  of 
Elias  Howe  have  been  added  to  his  model  during  the  past 
sixty  years.  But  at  this  hour  no  successful  sewing  machine 
plies  in  freedom  from  debt  to  Howe's  design  of  1845.  Let 
us  look  at  its  construction : 

A  firm  base,  A,  carries  an  overhanging  arm,  B.  Through 
the  side  and  extremity  of  this  arm  works  a  shaft,  C,  to 
which  is  attached  the  fly-wheel,  D,  driven  by  hand  at  E. 
The  thread  for  the  top  stitch  is  taken  continuously  from  the 
spool,  F,  and  fed  to  the  curved  needle,  a,  through  a  spring, 
b.  The  needle  works  through  the  cloth  at  c.  The  cloth  is 
carried  upon  pins,  d.  The  needle  arm,  G,  and  the  baster 
or  feed-plate,  H,  work  so  that  the  plate  moves  the  cloth 
forward  one  stage  at  the  completion  of  every  stitch.  The 
shuttle  is  driven  by  a  rod,  J,  which  is  caused  to  vibrate 
backwards  and  forwards  by  means  of  the  cam,  L.  The 
cam  I,  screwed  upon  the  sleeve,  Q,  actuates  the  lever,  P, 


350          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

which  action  gives  a  rocking  motion  to  the  short  shaft,  O, 
and  the  needle  arm,  on  being  connected  with  this,  vibrates, 


THE  FIRST  HOWE  SEWING  MACHINE 

carrying  the  needle  into  and  out  of  the  cloth  at  each  revolu- 
tion of  the  hand-wheel.  The  cloth  to  be  sewn  is  suspended 
vertically  by  pins  on  the  edge  of  its  baster  plate,  H,  which 


ELIAS  HOWE  351 

has  holes  engaging  with  the  teeth  of  a  small  pinion  which 
moves  intermittently. 

This  feed  was  the  least  happy  element  in  Howe's  machine. 
A  superior  feed,  in  wheel  form,  was  invented  by  John  J. 
Greenough  in  1842,  and  was  included  in  his  through-and- 
through  sewing  machine  patented  in  that  year.  Green- 
ough's  wheel-feed  allowed  cloth  to  be  sewn  in  any  direction 
whatever,  Howe's  feed  was  restricted  to  a  straight  line. 
This  limitation  was  soon  overcome  by  the  inventors  who 
took  up  Howe's  machine  where  he  left  it,  and  improved  it 
in  every  feature. 

To  Howe  let  us  return.  When  he  had  improved  his  de- 
vices for  tension,  so  as  to  stitch  with  neatness  and  uni- 
formity, he  invited  a  tailor  from  Boston  to  Cambridge  to 
use  the  machine,  and  pass  upon  its  merits  and  faults.  The 
tailor  declined  his  invitation:  he  believed  that  if  Howe's 
expectations  were  fulfilled,  the  tailoring  brotherhood  would 
soon  be  reduced  to  beggary.  Howe  then  canvassed  other 
tailors,  whom  he  besought  to  test  his  invention.  No,  said 
they,  with  united  breath.  Their  objections  were  manifold; 
they  were  certain  that  no  machine  work  could  be  so  strong 
and  even  as  hand  stitching.  "  To  the  proof,"  quoth  Howe. 
Bringing  his  machine  to  the  Quincy  Hall  Clothing  Factory, 
he  sat  in  front  of  it  and  sewed  seams  in  any  garment  handed 
to  him.  Visitors  were  astonished  to  watch  him  sew  250 
perfect  stitches  in  a  minute,  a  pace  at  least  sevenfold  that 
of  handwork.  For  two  weeks  Howe  sewed  for  all  comers, 
and  responded  to  queries  with  his  May  morning  smile. 
There  was  a  vein  of  sport  in  him,  and  it  came  out  as  he 
pitted  his  stitcher  against  a  united  band  of  five  young 
seamstresses,  chosen  for  their  speed.  He  was  ungallant 
enough  to  win;  and  not  only  in  pace  did  he  surpass  his 
competitors ;  they  acknowledged  his  seam  to  be  the  best  of 
the  six.  Yet  for  all  this  repeated  triumph  of  brass  and 
steel  over  fingers  of  flesh  and  blood,  nobody  took  any  real 


352          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

interest  in  Howe's  invention.  To  borrow  a  phrase  from 
the  economists,  no  effective  demand  was  in  evidence.  Howe 
heard  a  great  many  Ah's  and  Oh's  as  he  shot  his  needle 
swiftly  through  its  cloth;  but  when  his  visitors  departed, 
they  never  gave  his  machine  another  thought,  so  far  as  he 
could  see. 

Its  most  serious  fault  was  often  pointed  out;  its  baster 
plate  limited  seams  to  straight  lines,  so  that  only  part  of  a 
coat  or  waistcoat  could  be  stitched.  Howe's  machine  saved 
most  labor,  therefore,  in  manufacturing  shirts  and  skirts, 
sheets  and  quilts,  having  straight  sewing.  Then  this  very 
fact  of  dispensing  with  much  labor  was  turned  against 
Howe  by  employers,  who  feared  trouble  with  their  work 
people  if  they  adopted  his  sewing  machine.  One  candid 
objector  said :  "  We  are  doing  well  enough  as  we  are.  Your 
machine  is  costly  to  buy  and  to  keep  in  order.  There  is  no 
good  reason  why  we  should  bother  with  it."  This  man,  in 
alluding  to  the  high  cost  of  the  machine,  $300,  pointed  to 
Howe's  chief  obstacle.  A  shirt  manufacturer  on  a  large 
scale  might  need  thirty  to  forty  machines,  entailing  an  out- 
lay of  $9,000  to  $12,000,  a  good  deal  of  money  in  those  days. 
Since  then,  while  the  sewing  machine  has  been  immensely 
improved,  its  price  has  steadily  fallen.  At  the  outset  of 
his  experiments,  Howe  rejoiced  when  he  could  sew  250 
stitches  a  minute.  To-day  the  pace  may  be  fourteen  times 
faster,  and  the  one  check  on  still  higher  speed  is  the  undue 
heating  of  needles. 

Howe  was  not  disheartened  by  the  cool  reception  accorded 
his  machine.  He  saw  what  its  economy  meant,  if  nobody 
else  did,  and  he  was  unshaken  in  his  faith  that  it  would  yet 
bring  him  fame  and  fortune.  He  forthwith  began  to  build  a 
second  model,  to  be  lodged  in  the  Patent  Office  at  Wash- 
ington, as  the  law  then  required.  For  three  months  he 
toiled  at  this  machine,  putting  aside  all  other  tasks.  By  the 
following  spring,  that  of  1846,  his  new  model  was  finished, 


ELIAS  HOWE  353 

but  he  had  no  cash  for  a  journey  to  Washington,  or  to  pay 
the  fees  at  the  Patent  Office.  To  earn  a  little  money,  he 
ran  a  locomotive  on  the  Boston  and  Albany  Railroad.  A 
few  weeks  of  this  drudgery  and  exposure  prostrated  him. 
He  bade  good-by  to  the  footboard,  retaining  to  the  end  of 
his  days  a  lively  recollection  of  its  exhausting  demands. 
In  the  following  August,  Fisher  agreed  to  pay  all  expenses 
of  securing  a  patent,  including  the  cost  of  a  visit  to  Wash- 
ington. Without  a  day's  delay,  Howe  and  Fisher  went  to 
the  national  capital,  where,  on  September  icth,  a  patent  for 
the  sewing  machine  was  duly  sealed.  Its  issue  was  a  piece 
of  quiet  and  unmarked  routine,  with  no  augury  of  the  pro- 
longed legal  battles  its  claims  were  to  provoke.  At  Wash- 
ington, Howe  displayed  his  stitcher  at  a  fair,  eliciting  the 
usual  expressions  of  wonder.  But  nobody  wanted  to  buy 
the  machine,  or  even  hire  a  machine,  so  that,  beyond  vocal 
encouragement,  Howe  went  empty  away.  At  home  once 
more  in  Cambridge,  Fisher's  disappointment  was  outspoken. 
Not  the  remotest  possibility  did  he  see  of  being  repaid  ad- 
vances which  to  him  were  large,  amounting  to  $2,000.  In 
Fisher's  despair  Howe  refused  to  join.  For  the  time  being 
he  again  took  shelter  under  the  roof  of  his  good  old 
father. 

But  something  must  be  done.  England  had  larger  fac- 
tories than  America :  why  not  offer  the  machine  in  Eng- 
land? Howe  decided  to  send  a  machine  to  London,  in 
charge  of  his  brother,  Amasa,  who  embarked  for  London  in 
October,  1846,  as  a  steerage  passenger  in  a  sailing  packet. 
Soon  after  his  arrival,  he  found  in  Cheapside  the  shop  of 
William  Thomas,  who  manufactured,  on  a  large  scale, 
corsets,  shoes,  and  umbrellas,  wares  for  the  most  part 
stitched  in  straight  lines.  As  Amasa  clicked  out  his  seams 
at  a  swift  pace,  Thomas  candidly  expressed  his  admiration. 
He  bought  the  machine  for  £250  ($1,217),  including  per- 
mission to  use  as  many  more  machines  as  he  pleased. 


354          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

Thomas,  furthermore,  was  at  liberty  to  patent  the  invention 
in  England.  He  gave  a  verbal  promise,  which  he  never  ful- 
filled, to  pay  the  inventor  three  pounds  ($14.60)  for  every 
machine  sold  in  England.  For  years  Thomas  received 
royalties  up  to  ten  pounds  on  the  machines  he  sold:  on 
these  he  never  paid  Howe  a  penny.  The  main  branch  of 
Thomas's  business  was  corset-making,  and  for  this  work 
he  desired  that  Elias  Howe  should  specially  adapt  a  ma- 
chine, offering  a  salary  of  three  pounds  a  week  if  he 
would  come  to  London  for  the  purpose.  Amasa  posted  to 
Cambridge  with  this  offer,  taking  Elias  his  £250,  a  sum 
which  soon  vanished  in  the  payment  of  debts  long  stand- 
ing. As  America  still  had  its  back  turned  to  his  invention, 
Howe  accepted  Thomas's  proposal.  In  February,  1847,  the 
brothers  embarked  for  London,  setting  up  in  their  quar- 
ters a  small  cookstove,  so  as  to  leave  their  few  dollars  un- 
broached. 

When  they  reached  London,  Thomas  installed  them  in  a 
workshop,  fully  equipped  with  materials  and  tools.  He  did 
more:  he  advanced  Howe  enough  cash  to  bring  his  wife 
and  children  to  England,  where  they  arrived  ten  weeks 
afterward.  At  the  end  of  eight  months'  diligent  labor, 
Howe  handed  Thomas  a  machine  perfectly  adapted  to 
corset-making.  If  the  sewing  machine  entered  no  other 
field  than  this,  it  was  certain  here  to  win  its  buyer  a  hand- 
some fortune.  When  Howe  asked  Thomas,  "  What  next  ?  " 
Thomas  replied :  "  You  are  to  execute  miscellaneous  re- 
pairs." His  tone  was  so  haughty  that  the  sensitive  Yankee 
resented  it,  only  to  be  dismissed  on  the  spot. 

Howe  was  in  a  distressing  plight :  he  was  penniless  in  a 
strange  city:  his  wife  was  out  of  health,  while  three  chil- 
dren needed  her  constant  care.  But  now,  as  in  every  other 
dark  hour  of  his  life,  he  had  a  friend  to  help  him,  although 
this  man,  Charles  Inglis,  was  almost  as  poor  as  himself. 
Inglis  was  a  coachmaker,  who  had  become  acquainted  with 


ELIAS  HOWE  355 

Howe  at  Thomas's  factory,  and  had  taken  a  warm  liking 
to  him.  He  enabled  the  unfortunate  inventor  to  hire  a 
small  room  as  a  workshop,  where,  with  a  few  borrowed 
tools,  he  began  to  build  his  fourth  machine.  As  the  task 
went  forward  day  by  day,  improvements  suggested  them- 
selves, so  that  Howe  found  his  task  prolonged  far  beyond 
the  term  he  had  at  first  assigned  it.  He  had  to  choose 
between  bringing  his  expenses  to  the  lowest  notch  or  aban- 
doning his  work.  From  his  little  flat  of  three  rooms  he 
removed  to  one  room  in  the  cheapest  district  of  Surrey. 
Even  this  saving  did  not  suffice,  so  he  managed  to  send  his 
family  to  America,  where  they  could  live  at  less  cost  than 
in  London.  For  his  own  fare  across  the  Atlantic,  Howe 
looked  to  the  sale  of  his  machine,  now  fast  approaching 
completion.  This  machine,  at  the  end  of  four  months' 
labor,  stood  finished  at  last.  Although  Howe  priced  it  at 
fifty  pounds  ($243),  he  received  little  more  than  fifty  shil- 
lings for  it.  His  only  customer  was  a  poor  workman  who 
offered  him  five  pounds  in  the  form  of  a  promissory  note. 
This  wretched  proffer  Howe  was  obliged  to  accept,  selling 
the  note  for  four  pounds.  To  pay  his  debts,  and  his  fare 
to  New  York,  he  had  to  pawn  his  letters  patent  and  his 
precious  first  machine.  To  save  sixpence,  he  drew  his 
baggage  on  a  hand  cart  to  the  ship.  Again  he  descended 
to  the  steerage,  with  his  partner  in  distress;  Charles  Inglis, 
in  the  next  bunk. 

It  was  a  sunshiny  morning  in  early  April  when  Elias 
Howe  landed  in  New  York  and  walked  up  Broadway  from 
the  Battery.  He  had  only  sixty  cents  in  his  pocket,  but 
what  of  that?  On  his  homeward  voyage  he  had  heard 
that  work  was  a-plenty  in  New  York :  and  so  it  proved. 
He  found  employment  at  once  in  a  machine  shop  and  at 
good  wages.  He  had  barely  settled  down  at  his  bench 
when  he  received  sad  news  from  his  wife.  For  two  years 
past  she  had  suffered  from  consumption,  and  was  now 


356          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

dying.  A  few  days  later  Howe  received  ten  dollars  from 
his  father;  this  enabled  him  to  reach  his  wife's  bedside 
in  time  to  say  farewell.  At  her  funeral  the  stricken  hus- 
band appeared  in  decent  garments  of  black  which  he  had 
borrowed  from  his  brother-in-law:  his  own  wardrobe  held 
nothing  beyond  a  frayed  working-suit.  Howe's  natural 
cheeriness  was  now  quenched.  He  was  heartbroken,  with 
a  face  as  wrinkled  and  haggard  as  if  ten  years  had  passed 
since  his  return  to  America.  To  his  great  affliction  a 
minor  misfortune  added  itself.  The  ship  bearing  his  house- 
hold furniture  was  wrecked,  on  its  way  from  England,  on 
a  reef  of  Cape  Cod.  Howe's  utter  misery  moved  his  old 
friends  to  compassion;  they  took  charge  of  his  motherless 
children  and  bade  him  be  of  good  cheer.  While  his  neigh- 
bors poohpoohed  his  inventiveness,  they  highly  esteemed 
his  skill  as  a  mechanic.  He  was  soon  at  work  again  as  a 
journeyman  machinist,  with  no  immediate  prospects  of 
ever  being  anything  else. 

At  his  bench  one  day  he  learned,  to  his  astonishment,  that 
his  sewing  machine  had  become  famous,  but  not  under  his 
name.  During  his  absence  in  London,  pirates  had  stolen  his 
invention,  masking  its  essential  features  so  as,  if  possible, 
to  hide  their  theft.  Howe,  poor  though  he  was,  resolved 
to  make  these  thieves  drop  their  plunder.  He  taught  them, 
to  their  cost,  that  for  all  his  mild  and  easy-going  ways,  he 
was  one  of  the  most  formidable  suitors  who  ever  entered  a 
courtroom.  Although  he  had  then  hardly  a  dollar  of  his 
own,  he  was  able  to  command  the  dollars  of  a  friend  who 
believed  in  him  and  in  his  machine.  At  the  outset  of  his 
legal  battles,  Howe  was  a  journeyman,  with  his  original 
model  and  his  patent  pledged  for  debt  3,000  miles  away. 
When  his  battles  were  at  an  end,  his  patent  was  acknowl- 
edged as  basic,  and  a  great  national  industry  was  paying 
him  a  fortune  every  year  as  royalty. 

But  in  the  meantime  he  underwent  a  struggle  that  all  but 


ELIAS  HOWE  357 

overwhelmed  him.  First  came  the  pang  when  his  friend 
Fisher  bade  him  good-by,  and  sold  his  half  interest  in  the 
sewing  machine  to  George  W.  Bliss.  This  new  partner  felt 
certain  that,  if  the  sewing  machine  proved  a  success,  it 
would  yield  a  vast  income  to  its  owner.  As  a  promising 
speculation  he  advanced  the  cash  necessary  to  pursue  the  in- 
fringers  of  Howe's  patent,  and  advised  the  best  line  of  at- 
tack upon  them.  But  Bliss,  with  all  his  faith  and  enter- 
prise, was  a  man  of  extreme  caution.  He  required  his  loan 
to  be  secured  by  a  mortgage  on  the  farm  of  Howe,  senior. 
This  was  granted.  It  was  because  Howe's  father  had  un- 
faltering confidence  in  his  son,  and  came  gallantly  to  his 
rescue  again  and  again,  that  Elias  Howe  came  to  victory 
at  last.  His  suits  went  forward  slowly  from  stage  to  stage, 
after  the  manner  of  suits  then  and  now,  so  that  the  inventor 
had  abundant  leisure  to  exhibit  his  machine  when  he  pleased, 
and  to  promote  its  sale  where  he  could. 

New  York,  he  felt  sure,  offered  him  the  best  base  for  his 
operations,  so  thither  he  removed,  to  open  a  small  shop  in 
Gold  Street.  There,  in  the  closing  months  of  1850,  he  built 
fourteen  machines.  In  the  following  autumn  one  of  them  . 
was  shown  at  the  Castle  Garden  Fair:  it  sewed  gaiters, 
pantaloons,  and  waistcoats  as  fast  as  they  were  proffered. 
Other  machines  went  to  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  where 
they  sewed  bootlegs, — a  severe  test  of  their  strength  and 
precision.  Two  machines  at  a  Broadway  clothier's  gave 
equal  satisfaction.  Thus  Howe  was  not  only  the  inventor 
of  the  modern  sewing  machine,  he  was  the  first  to  introduce 
it  to  manufacturers,  and  break  ground  for  the  legion  of  ^ 
demonstrators  and  canvassers  who  soon  entered  the  field. 

Of  Howe's  opponents  in  and  out  of  court,  much  the 
ablest  and  most  formidable  was  a  man  who  began  his 
career  as  an  actor  and  theatrical  manager.  This  was  Isaac 
Morton  Singer,  who  patented,  in  1851,  improvements  on 
Howe's  original  model.  Singer's  needle  moved  vertically 


358         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

instead  of  horizontally:  he  replaced  a  hand-wheel  by  a 
treadle :  he  adopted  Greenough's  roughened  wheel-feed,  ex- 
tended through  a  slot  of  his  table,  a  device  distinctly  bet- 
ter than  Howe's  baster-plate.  He  revived  Thimonnier's 
presser-foot  to  hold  down  cloth,  to  which  he  added  a  yield- 
ing spring.  But  it  was  neither  as  an  inventor  nor  a  bor- 
rower of  inventions  that  Singer  shone :  it  was  as  a  business 
organizer.  To  him  incomparably  more  than  to  anybody 
else  is  due  the  awakening  of  the  civilized  world  to  the  im- 
mense value  of  sewing  machines.  His  experience  on  the 
stage  and  in  the  box  office  had  taught  him  how  to  use 
brass  bands,  limelights,  and  printer's  ink.  He  knew  how 
many  lessons  the  management  and  transportation  of  cir- 
cuses could  teach  the  chieftains  of  war  and  industry.  He 
advertised  and  placarded;  he  canvassed  and  exhibited;  he 
arranged  exciting  contests  widely  reported  in  the  press. 
And  more :  he  established  agencies  under  central  control, 
where  buyers  were  instructed,  where  repairs  could  be 
promptly  executed  at  small  expense.  He  thus  abolished  the 
cost  and  risk  of  selling  to  merchants  on  credit;  he  made  it 
feasible  to  present  the  whole  world  at  a  stroke  with  a  new 
type  of  machine,  with  any  new  accessory  of  real  merit. 
He  was  a  man  cordially  hated  by  his  rivals,  but  in  their 
hearts  they  had  to  respect  him.  He  was  wise  in  choosing 
associates,  mechanical,  commercial,  legal.  On  lines  many 
years  ago  projected  by  Singer,  the  principal  sewing  ma- 
chine factories  of  the  globe  are  to-day  united  at  one  center 
in  New  York.  Each  factory  makes  what  it  can  make  to 
advantage,  exchanging  part  of  its  output  with  sister  con- 
cerns. The  largest  of  these  factories,  located  at  Singer, 
Clydebank,  Scotland,  employs  12,000  hands.  A  corps  of 
inventors  are  kept  busy  the  year  round  in  adapting  machines 
to  new  duties.  One  year,  special  attention  may  be  be- 
stowed upon  embroidering,  and  the  next  year  upon  lining 
the  hats  of  men  and  women.  In  the  factory  at  Bridgeport, 


ELIAS  HOWE 


359 


Connecticut,  is  a  museum  of  sewing  machines  which  is  the 
most  complete  in  existence. 

Singer,  the  original  mainspring  of  this  vast  system, 
from  his  first  sight  of  a  Howe  machine  was  convinced  of 
its  immense  value.  In  seeking  to  invade  Howe's  patent  he 
came,  one  evening,  upon  news  that  cheered  him  greatly. 
He  heard,  what  we  already  know,  that  in  1834  Walter  Hunt, 
of  New  York,  had  invented  a  machine  which  produced  a 
lock-stitch  by  means  of  an  eye-pointed  needle  and  a  recipro- 
cating shuttle.  "  Then,"  said  Singer,  "  Howe  was  second 
in  the  field,  and  his  patent  is  worthless."  But  where  was 


CHAIN-STITCH 


LOCK-STITCH 

Hunt's  machine  to  be  found,  so  as  to  be  producible  in 
court?  It  lay  as  rubbish  in  a  workshop  in  that  very  Gold 
Street  where  stood  Howe's  premises.  Hunt's  machine  was 
carefully  cleaned  and  repaired,  but  neither  its  inventor  nor 
any  one  else  could  sew  a  stitch  with  it.  Hunt,  in  his  time, 
had  taken  out  scores  of  patents,  and  why  he  had  never 
applied  for  a  patent  on  this  machine  was  plain.  While  its 
mechanism  came  near  to  efficiency,  it  just  missed  efficiency. 
Its  unfortunate  creator  was  a  Mr.  Ready-to-halt,  and  his 
want  of  a  little  courage  and  persistence  had  lost  him  one  of 
the  great  prizes  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  1854,  Hunt 
applied  for  a  patent  on  his  sewing  machine;  it  was  refused 


360          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

on  the  ground  of  abandonment.  Court  after  court  listened 
impartially  to  his  plea,  always  deciding  in  favor  of  Howe. 
Theirs  was  a  remarkable  case  of  the  same  invention  oc- 
curring independently  to  more  than  one  mind.  Both  Hunt 
and  Howe  were  familiar  with  eye-pointed  needles,  and  with 
shuttles  which  interwove  one  thread  with  another.  Each 
inventor  joined  these  cardinal  elements  in  a  machine  which, 
with  him,  was  original.  To  the  man  who  took  the  trouble 
to  bring  his  invention  to  a  practical  success,  was  awarded 
the  palm.  In  1854,  after  a  long  trial  against  an  infringer, 
in  which  all  the  adducible  evidence  was  presented,  Judge 
Sprague,  of  Massachusetts,  decided  that  "  The  plaintiff's 
(Howe's)  patent  is  valid,  and  the  defendant's  machine  is 
an  infringement.  .  .  .  There  is  no  evidence  in  the  case 
that  leaves  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that,  for  all  the  benefit 
conferred  on  the  public  by  the  invention  of  the  sewing 
machine,  the  public  is  indebted  to  Mr.  Howe." 

This  judgment  was  rendered  nine  years  after  Howe's 
first  machine  was  built,  and  when  eight  years  of  his  patent 
had  expired.  Even  with  all  judicial  decisions  in  his  favor, 
the  inventor's  royalties  were  small.  This  cloud  had  a 
golden  lining.  Mr.  Bliss,  who  owned  half  the  patent,  about 
this  time  passed  away,  and  Howe  was  able  to  buy  his  share 
at  a  low  figure,  and  thus,  for  the  first  time,  become  sole 
owner  of  his  patent.  This  purchase  was  effected  just  as 
public  indifference  was  thawing,  and  when,  for  the  time  be- 
ing, Howe's  rivals  had  dropped  their  arms.  Fortune  now 
arose  in  a  floodtide  which  soon  swept  Howe  safely  out  of 
the  shoals  and  shallows,  where  he  had  been  buffeted  so 
long.  His  income  mounted  by  leaps  and  bounds  from  a 
few  hundreds  a  year  to  more  than  $200,000,  as  much  as  a 
million  would  be  to-day. 

But  the  peace  then  ruling  the  sewing  machine  industry 
could  not  last  long  in  the  presence  of  so  broad  a  stream  of 
gold  pouring  into  Howe's  coffers.  Leading  manufacturers 


ELIAS  HOWE  361 

rebelled  against  paying  him  further  "  tribute,"  and  among 
themselves  they  had  endless  quarrels  as  to  alleged  infringe- 
ments. Early  in  1856,  the  suits  of  these  complainants  were 
to  be  tried  at  Albany,  New  York,  and  loud  were  the  threats 
of  disaster  hurled  by  each  camp  in  succession.  In  hotel- 
lobbies,  in  the  ante-chambers  of  justice  itself,  faces  were 
flushed  with  anger,  and  imprecations  issued  from  unguarded 
lips.  One  party  to  the  fray  was  an  eminent  lawyer  of  New 
York,  George  Gifford,  who  kept  his  head  cool  and  his 
mind  clear.  His  professional  experience  had  taught  him 
that  the  demands  of  clients  are  not  always  free  from  hum- 
bug. Without  knowing  it,  he  was  a  forerunner  of  the 
modern  trust  magnates,  who  have  remodeled  American  in- 
dustry. Said  he :  "  In  Albany  to-day  are  assembled  the  men 
who  control  the  sewing  machine  manufacture  of  the  globe. 
Let  them  join  hands  instead  of  shutting  their  fists,  and  they 
will  find  vastly  more  profit  in  peace  than  in  war."  A  sur- 
vivor of  that  conference  remembers  one  cause  which  con- 
tributed to  the  success  of  this  sagacious  plea.  Even  the 
most  just  man  of  them  all  did  not  wish  his  record  unveiled 
and  attacked  in  open  court.  Many  a  new  patent  bore  an 
unmistakable  filial  resemblance  to  an  old  patent  still  in 
force.  No  accuser  of  others,  however  vehement,  felt  him- 
self to  be  wholly  blameless.  The  peacemaker  was  blessed 
with  success.  .The  threatened  battle  never  came  off,  Howe's 
patent  being  recognized  as  fundamental  by  the  twenty-four 
assembled  licensees.  Every  machine  sold  in  America  was 
to  pay  Howe  $5;  every  exported  machine,  $i.  In  1861, 
Howe's  patent  was  renewed :  thenceforward  his  royalty  for 
machines,  wherever  sold,  was  one  dollar.  All  licensees 
taxed  themselves  heavily  to  prosecute  infringers.  These 
gentry  raised  an  outcry  about  "  combination  "  and  "  extor- 
tion," but  they  soon  grew  weary  of  its  hollow  and  un- 
echoed  sound. 

Howe  was  now  a  rich  man  at  last,  and  he  frankly  en- 


362          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

joyed  his  good  fortune.  His  generous  soul  was  rejoiced 
in  bestowing  goodly  gifts  upon  his  kindred  and  friends. 
More  than  aught  else  his  heart  was  gladdened  by  an  oppor- 
tunity to  render  a  service  to  the  nation.  He  had  seen,  with 
quickened  pulse,  his  machine  provide  Union  troops  with 
millions  of  uniforms  and  haversacks,  tents  and  sails, 
cartridge-boxes  and  shoes,  which,  within  the  time-limits  of 
battle  could  not  possibly  have  been  sewn  by  hand.  Let  an 
example  of  this  despatch  be  cited:  One  afternoon,  at  three 
o'clock,  a  telegram  reached  New  York  from  the  War  De- 
partment at  Washington,  requiring  50,000  sandbags  for  field 
defenses.  Within  twenty-three  hours  the  bags  were  cut 
from  their  cloth,  sewn,  baled,  and  shipped  on  an  express 
train  southward  bound.  With  many  a  service  like  this  to 
his  credit,  Elias  Howe  might  well  have  excused  himself 
from  enlisting  as  a  soldier,  especially  in  view  of  his  lame- 
ness. But  he  was  not  a  man  who  dealt  in  excuses,  or  who 
loved  his  country  with  anything  less  than  his  whole  heart. 
He  organized  the  Seventeenth  Regiment  of  Connecticut,  and 
presented  each  officer  with  a  horse.  He  was  elected  Colonel, 
and,  sensible  man  that  he  was,  he  declined  the  honor,  tak- 
ing a  place  in  the  ranks  as  a  private,  serving  faithfully 
until  his  health  gave  way.  For  some  weeks,  in  camp  near 
Baltimore,  he  was  regimental  postmaster,  riding  to  and 
from  the  city  every  day  with  mail  bags  sewn,  we  may  be 
sure,  on  a  Howe  machine. 

That  machine  was  destined  soon  to  be  radically  improved, 
and  in  some  features  wholly  supplanted,  by  other  inventors. 
Of  these  men  the  most  remarkable  was  Allen  B.  Wilson, 
who  was  born  in  Willet,  Cortlandt  County,  New  York,  on 
October  18,  1824.  It  was  in  1847,  during  a  brief  stay  at 
Adrian,  Michigan,  where  he  was  a  journeyman  cabinet- 
maker, that  he  conceived  the  idea  of  a  sewing  machine.  He 
had  never  seen  such  a  thing,  even  in  a  picture  or  a  diagram. 
A  few  months  later  he  removed  to  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts, 


ELIAS  HOWE  363 

where,  toward  the  close  of  1848,  he  completed  his  drawings. 
Next  came  the  task  of  carrying  out  his  plans  in  wood,  iron, 
and  brass.  He  found  a  friend  in  his  employer,  who  al- 
lowed him  the  free  run  of  his  shop  at  night,  so  that  his 
model  might  be  built  when  the  day's  work  was  over.  Wil- 
son was  not  a  machinist,  and  he  had  none  of  a  machinist's 
tools.  But  by  the  end  of  the  following  March  he  had  built 
every  part  of  his  model  with  his  own  hands.  It  was,  of 
course,  rough  in  its  workmanship,  but  it  neatly  stitched 
several  dress  waists,  to  the  delight  of  their  owners  and  all 
Pittsfield.  Wilson's  design  included  an  eye-pointed  needle, 
and  a  two-pointed  shuttle  which  made  a  stitch  at  every  mo- 
tion forward  and  backward.  He  included  a  two-motion 
feed,  which  led  him  to  devise  afterward  his  four-motion 
feed,  an  invention  of  prime  importance.  Wilson's  original 
feed  had  the  great  merit  of  permitting  a  seam  to  take  any 
line  whatever,  straight,  curved,  or  crooked,  at  an  operator's 
pleasure.  This  was  effected  by  a  toothed  bar  moved  to 
and  fro  horizontally  in  constant  contact  with  the  cloth, 
which  it  moved  onward  at  proper  intervals  by  the  forward 
inclination  of  its  teeth.  It  receded  while  its  cloth  was 
held  in  position  by  the  needle,  during  the  brief  time  before 
the  needle  was  withdrawn. 

The  following  May,  that  of  1849,  found  Wilson  at  North 
Adams,  Massachusetts,  where  he  built  a  second  machine  on 
the  same  general  plan  as  the  first,  and  with  better  construc- 
tion. This  served  as  his  model  in  obtaining  a  patent  on 
November  12,  1850.  Wilson  was  an  acute  critic  of  his  own 
contrivances,  and,  as  his  shuttle  gave  him  much  trouble, 
he  resolved  to  replace  it,  if  possible,  with  a  rotating  hook 
suggested  in  chain-stitch  machines.  Next,  he  replaced  his 
two-motion  feed  with  a  segmental  screw  device.  His  new 
machine,  thus  improved,  was  patented  on  August  12,  1851, 
the  day  on  which  Isaac  M.  Singer  received  a  patent  for 
his  first  sewing  machine.  Wilson  experimented  constantly 


364      THE  WORLD'S  LEADING  INVENTORS 

with  a  new  stitch-forming  mechanism,  and  at  last  perfected 
a  rotary  hook,  which  he  patented  on  June  15,  1852.  This 
latest  machine  displayed  a  device  which  became  quite  as 
famous  as  the  rotary  hook;  yet,  strange  to  say,  although 
Wilson  described  it  promptly  enough,  he  did  not  patent  it 
until  December  19,  1854.  This  was  his  four-motion  feed, 
which  for  many  years  had  all  but  universal  vogue,  and 
earned  fortunes  for  its  inventor  and  his  assigns.  In  its 


WILSON'S  ROTARY  HOOK  IN  FOUR  PHASES  OF  FORMING  A  STITCH 

original  model  it  consisted  of  a  serrated  bar  which,  by  means 
of  cams,  had  a  horizontal  to-and-fro  movement,  and  a 
vertical  up-and-down  motion.  The  serrated  upper  surface 
of  this  bar  worked  through  an  opening  in  the  table  upon 
which  was  laid  the  cloth  to  be  sewn.  Above  the  cloth 
moved  a  yielding  presser-plate.  The  feeding-bar  first  rose 
so  as  to  bring  its  roughened  surface  in  contact  with  the 
underside  of  the  cloth ;  it  then  moved  horizontally  forward 
a  stitch-length,  and  carried  the  cloth  along;  then  it 


ELIAS  HOWE  365 

descended  below  the  level  of  the  table,  so  as  to  leave  the 
cloth  free  from  contact.  Finally,  it  returned  to  its  original 
position,  completing  its  cycle.  This  four-motion  feed  sup- 
plied the  keystone  for  the  arch  of  sewing  mechanism,  as- 
suring its  acceptance  for  households  throughout  the  civ- 
ilized world. 

In  devising  a  rotary  hook  to  take  the  place  of  a  shuttle 
driven  to  and  fro,  Wilson  brought  stitching  machines  from 
the  second  rank  to  the  first,  taking  the  step  which  divides 
continuous  motion  from  motion  interrupted  and  reversed. 
The  advances  in  which  his  revolving  hook  marked  a  stride, 
doubtless  began  with  the  very  dawn  of  human  ingenuity. 
At  first,  we  may  imagine,  burdens  too  heavy  for  human 
shoulders  were  dragged  on  the  ground.  It  was  an  in- 
estimable saving  of  toil  when  a  round  log,  by  way  of  a 
roller,  was  placed  between  the  burden  and  the  earth,  in 
clear  prophecy  and  promise  of  a  wheel.  Of  kin  to  that  early 
triumph,  and  almost  as  useful,  are  the  circular  saw,  the 
rotary  planer,  and  the  milling  cutter  with  its  wonderful 
offspring,  the  Blanchard  lathe.  Early  dynamos  and  motors 
were  reciprocating;  soon  rotary  designs  took  the  field,  to 
hold  it  forever.  Oars  dipped  into  water,  throb  after  throb, 
were  the  first  crude  imitations  of  the  galley-slave ;  they  have 
disappeared  even  from  museums,  in  favor  of  rotary  screws 
and  revolving  paddle-wheels.  And  the  engine  which  ac- 
tuates a  huge  propeller  is  more  and  more  frequently  a 
steam  turbine,  the  steadiest  of  steam  motors,  which  lightens 
the  floors  not  only  of  steamships,  but  of  factories  and  cen- 
tral power  stations,  while  it  everywhere  yields  smooth  run- 
ning instead  of  a  wasteful  and  damaging  vibration.  It  is 
the  rotary  hook  which  to-day  makes  feasible  a  speed  of 
3,500  stitches  in  a  minute,  so  that  the  only  limit  to  further 
celerity  is  the  heat  created  by  friction  on  needles  as  smooth 
as  glass. 

Wilson  formed  a  partnership  with  Nathaniel  Wheeler,  a 


366          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

man  of  ability  and  integrity,  who  manufactured  hardware  at 
Watertown,  Connecticut.  There,  Wheeler  &  Wilson  first 
produced  their  sewing  machines.  Shortly  afterward  they 
removed  to  Bridgeport,  in  the  same  State.  Their  premises, 
small  at  first,  have  been  repeatedly  enlarged.  They  now  ac- 
commodate 1,500  hands  as  Factory  Number  Ten  of  the 
Singer  circuit.  Mr.  Wilson's  talents  lay  solely  in  the  field 
of  invention ;  business  had  little  attraction  for  him.  He  re- 
tired from  the  firm  of  Wheeler  &  Wilson  in  1853,  with  a 
goodly  income  as  the  reward  of  his  unique  devices.  He 
died  in  Woodmont,  Connecticut,  on  April  29,  1888. 

Only  once  has  a  sewing  machine  been  born  in  America 
outside  the  New  England  States.  This  was  in  1855,  when 
James  A.  E.  Gibbs,  a  farmer  of  Millpoint,  Virginia,  one 
evening  noticed  in  the  Scientific  American  a  picture  of  a 
sewing  machine.  All  that  the  illustration  showed  was  the 
upper  mechanism,  and  Gibbs  puzzled  his  brains  to  imagine 
the  unpictured  devices  which  formed  the  stitch.  He  kept 
asking  himself :  "  What  takes  place  after  the  needle  punc- 
tures its  cloth  ?  "  For  months  this  question  weighed  him 
down.  At  last  light  glimmered  in  his  brain,  and  he  thought 
out  the  revolving  hook  which  enchains  the  stitches  in  a 
Wilcox  &  Gibbs  machine.  But  this  hook  had  to  be  part- 
nered with  Howe's  eye-pointed  needle,  and  with  Wilson's 
four-motion  feed,  so  that  Gibbs  had,  at  first,  to  pay  seven 
dollars  in  tribute  as  he  equipped  each  of  his  machines. 

It  would  take  a  very  big  book  to  recite  the  achievements 
of  other  inventors  in  this  broad  and  fruitful  field  of  sewing 
devices.  Flying  the  temptation,  let  us  return  to  the  man 
who  led  the  procession,  Elias  Howe.  While  he  still  enjoyed 
a  fair  measure  of  health  and  activity,  he  was  gratified  by 
seeing  his  machine  adapted  to  many  diverse  tasks,  all  ex- 
ecuted as  speedily  as  plain  sewing.  Soon  a  Howe  machine 
could  not  only  stitch,  but  hem  and  gather,  fold  and  braid, 
embroider,  and  make  buttonholes.  To-day  the  successors 


ELIAS  HOWE  367 

• 

of  his  machines  darn  and  mend  with  astonishing  neatness, 
and,  in  the  manufacture  of  shoes  and  much  else,  a  knife 
trims  away  the  superfluous  edge  of  leather  or  lining  as  fast 
as  its  seam  is  sewn. 

Many  labor-savers  have  of  late  years  found  their  way  into 
American  homes,  to  take  places  beside  the  sewing  machine, 
yet  that  machine  remains  the  most  important  of  them  all. 
In  those  sensible  households  where  clothing  and  table 
linen,  drapery  for  windows  and  the  like,  continue  plain 
and  simple,  this  machine  despatches  their  seams  in  one- 
tenth  the  time  required  of  old.  For  a  good  many  years  its 
motion  was  imparted  by  treadles;  this  was  fatiguing,  and 
gave  rise  to  serious  maladies.  In  factories,  treadles  were 
abolished  as  soon  as  it  was  found  that,  with  dependence  on 
steam-power,  an  operator  could  turn  out  one-fourth  more 
work. 

The  sewing  machine,  in  its  quick  output  of  garments  for 
men,  women,  and  children,  has  created  the  ready-made 
clothing  business,  which  now  offers  as  carefully  patterned 
and  finished  raiment  as  made-to-order  clothes  were,  a  gen- 
eration since.  To-day,  thanks  to  Howe,  undergarments 
cost  but  very  little  more  than  their  cloth  as  delivered  by  the 
weaver.  A  few  years  ago,  a  manufacturer  in  New  Eng- 
land sold  vast  quantities  of  unlaundered  shirts  at  fifty 
cents  each.  His  profits,  estimated  at  forty  dollars  a  day, 
were  mainly  derived  from  his  cuttings,  from  which  the  best 
paper  was  manufactured. 

Clothing  for  women  is  seldom  of  the  plainness  of  these 
cheap  shirts.  A  century  ago  it  may  have  required  a  month 
to  sew  a  lady's  outfit  for  a  year's  wear.  To-day  that  lady's 
great-granddaughter  may  want  a  seamstress  at  a  swift  ma- 
chine to  keep  busy  for  that  same  month,  as  one  elaborate 
garment  is  added  to  another.  Where  wiser  counsels  pre- 
vail, the  plain  sewing  of  a  family  becomes,  with  an  electric 
motor,  little  else  than  a  recreation.  In  some  towns  and 


368      THE  WORLD'S  LEADING  INVENTORS 

cities  of  the  United  States  and  Canada,  electricity  costs  only 
one-quarter  of  a  cent  for  a  horse-power  running  one  hour. 
Suppose  that  the  current  to  drive  a  machine  is  one-eighth 
of  a  horse-power:  at  that  price  a  sewing  machine  may  be 
impelled  thirty-two  hours  for  a  single  cent.  In  his  early 
days,  the  cost  of  a  machine  was  so  high  that  Howe  hardly 
expected  its  adoption  by  families.  It  was  usually  imagined, 
too,  that  operation  was  difficult  to  master.  And  yet,  by 
1867,  the  price  of  a  good  machine  had  fallen  to  $55,  and 
in  one  hour  an  intelligent  woman  could  learn  to  work  it 
rapidly.  To-day  one-half  the  sewing  machines  are  busy  in 
households,  and  the  other  half  in  factories. 

It  was  the  fate  of  Elias  Howe,  who  bestowed  so  great  a 
gift  upon  the  world,  to  enjoy  its  rewards  only  a  few  years. 
The  hardships  of  his  protracted  struggle  undermined  a  con- 
stitution never  robust,  even  in  his  youth.  In  the  summer  of 
1867  he  developed  Bright's  disease  at  his  daughter's  house 
in  Brooklyn,  and  there,  after  a  short  illness,  he  passed  away 
on  October  3d,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-eight  years.  This 
daughter,  Mrs.  Jane  R.  Caldwell,  died  in  New  York  in 
August,  1912.  Her  mother,  Elizabeth  Ames,  died  when 
Mrs.  Caldwell  was  but  seven  years  of  age.  In  1859  her 
father  had  his  portrait  painted  by  Joseph  Eliot,  of  Albany: 
it  had  the  place  of  honor  in  Mrs.  Caldwell's  home  in  the 
Borough  of  the  Bronx,  ten  miles  from  the  City  Hall  of  New 
York.  By  her  courtesy  this  portrait  has  been  reproduced 
for  these  pages.  Mrs.  Caldwell  remembered  how  her  father 
was  wont  to  go  about  his  house  all  day  with  a  shuttle  in  his 
hand,  thinking  about  new  tension  devices  and  the  like.  It 
is  certain  that,  had  he  lived  to  the  allotted  span  of  human 
life,  he  and  nobody  else  would  have  created  for  his  machine 
many  an  improvement  now  bearing  the  names  of  men  whom 
he  instructed  and  inspired. 


[From  Photograph  by  F.  Gutekunst,  Philadelphia.] 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN 

A  SMALL  group  of  inventors,  high  in  rank,  have  been 
educated  men  who  have  pioneered  new  paths  in  response  to 
an  instinct,  rather  than  as  a  matter  of  professional  quest 
with  gain  as  its  goal.  A  thoroughly  equipped  amateur  of 
this  type  was  General  Benjamin  Chew  Tilghman,  of  Phila- 
delphia. His  independence  and  vigor  of  mind  brought 
him  to  ideas  wholly  original,  and  his  competency  of  fortune 
enabled  him  to  develop  these  ideas  with  unflagging  ardor 
throughout  a  long  life.  He  had  the  prime  impulse  in- 
dispensable to  any  great  success  whatever — an  intense  in- 
terest in  his  work.  Hobby  riding  by  ordinary  men  adds 
no  little  cheer  and  refreshment  to  their  lives.  When  a  man 
of  General  Tilghman's  ability  chooses  invention  not  as  a 
hobby,  but  as  his  career,  the  toil  of  research  and  construc- 
tion is  a  joy  to  him,  and  a  joy  which  is  heightened  as  his 
work  confers  boons  and  benefits  upon  his  fellow  men.  Gen- 
eral Tilghman  was  a  reserved  and  quiet  gentleman  of  the  old 
school,  so  averse  from  publicity  that  his  achievements  have 
never  attracted  the  attention  they  richly  merit. 

His  high  breeding  and  personal  dignity  were  the  heritage 
of  centuries.  He  traced  his  descent  from  Richard  Tilgh- 
man, a  man  of  Danish  blood,  who  died  in  1463  on  his  Eng- 
lish estate,  Holloway  Court,  near  Rochester.  Sixth  from 
him  in  the  direct  line  was  another  Richard  Tilghman,  a 
surgeon,  who  entered  the  British  Navy  under  Admiral 
Blake,  to  become,  like  his  commander,  an  ardent  follower  of 
Cromwell.  This  Tilghman  signed  the  famous  petition  ask- 
ing that  justice  be  done  to  one  Charles  Stuart.  From  the  mo- 
ment when  this  "  justice  "  led  Charles  I.  to  the  scaffold,  the 
grasp  of  Cromwell  upon  England  became  insecure.  The 

369 


370          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

strength  of  the  Royalists  grew  steadily,  and  Tilghman  and 
his  party  were  openly  flouted  as  regicides,  worthy  of  the  gal- 
lows. Eleven  years  after  the  beheading  of  the  king,  and  just 
before  his  son  Charles  II.  came  to  the  throne,  Richard  Tilgh- 
man and  his  family  emigrated  to  Lord  Baltimore's  colony  of 
Maryland,  where  he  acquired  lands  on  Charles  River  in 
what  is  now  Queen  Anne  County,  and  where  he  built  the 
Hermitage  as  his  manor-house.  His  descendants  usually 
chose  the  bar  as  their  profession,  rising  to  its  highest  rank. 
One  of  them,  Matthew  Tilghman,  a  great-granduncle  of 
General  Tilghman,  came  within  an  ace  of  signing  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  He  was  a  delegate  from 
Maryland  when  Independence  was  under  consideration. 
When  all  was  settled,  he  was  summoned  from  his  seat  in 
Congress  to  preside  at  the  State  Convention  in  Annapolis. 
There  the  Constitution  for  Maryland  was  formulated,  and 
went  into  effect  on  August  14,  1776.  In  his  absence  his 
alternate,  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  signed  the 
Declaration.  He  died  in  1832,  in  his  ninety-sixth  year,  the 
last  survivor  of  the  men  who  signed  the  great  document. 
James,  Matthew,  Edward,  and  William  Tilghman  were 
jurists  of  the  foremost  mark,  William  becoming  Chief 
Justice  of  Pennsylvania,  and  holding  for  many  years  the 
presidency  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society.  Fifth 
in  line  from  Richard  Tilghman,  the  sturdy  immigrant,  was 
Benjamin  Tilghman,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  Philadelphia, 
who,  in  1815,  espoused  Anna  Maria  McMurtrie.  On  Oc- 
tober 26,  1821,  was  born  their  third  child,  Benjamin  Chew 
Tilghman,  who  was  to  win  fame  as  an  inventor  and  dis- 
coverer. Even  as  a  toddler  he  was  remarkable.  When  he 
was  three  years  old  his  family  lived  in  Walnut  Street,  op- 
posite Independence  Hall.  One  day  his  mother,  while  out 
shopping,  lost  him  in  a  thoroughfare  nearby.  She  became 
frantic  as  she  sought  him  in  vain,  fearing  his  death  from  a 
passing  cart,  or  maiming  at  the  least.  When  at  last  she 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN  371 

came  home,  there  stood  her  boy,  utterly  perplexed  at  her 
agitation  and  tears.  As  soon  as  he  had  missed  his  mother, 
he  entered  a  druggist's  at  the  corner,  gave  the  shopman  his 
father's  name,  told  where  he  lived,  and  asked  to  be  taken 
home.  Nothing  in  all  this  seemed  to  him  out  of  the  way. 

When  nine  years  old  he  took  typhoid  fever;  in  his  de- 
lirium he  sang  his  school  ditties  and  repeated  his  school 
verses  without  dropping  a  word.  Anon  he  imagined  him- 
self in  command  of  soldiers  to  whom  he  gave  orders  in  im- 
perative tones,  with  unconscious  prophecy  of  the  orders  he 
was  to  give  thirty  years  later  on  the  field  of  war.  As  a 
boy  he  loved  fiction  and,  seated  at  an  entry  window  upstairs, 
he  would  read  the  Waverley  romances  with  delight.  His 
brother  Dick  gave  warning  if  Mother  approached.  Her 
traditions  were  Presbyterian,  and  she  frowned  upon  youths 
of  tender  years  who  read  novels.  In  other  respects,  too, 
her  views  were  austere.  Her  little  sons  were  never  per- 
mitted to  wear  overcoats.  When  Benjamin's  school  days 
were  at  an  end,  he  proceeded  to  Bristol  College  in  his  na- 
tive State,  and  thence  to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
where  he  was  duly  graduated.  To  please  his  father,  and  to 
sustain  the  legal  traditions  of  his  family,  he  studied  law 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  but  he  never  practised  law. 
Indeed,  he  always  regarded  law  with  disrelish.  From  youth 
he  was  more  at  home  in  a  workshop  than  in  a  courtroom  or 
a  law  library.  When  at  his  furnace  or  still  he  put  a  ques- 
tion to  nature,  her  responses  were  not  subject  to  reversal. 
In  the  vast,  unexplored  fields  of  physics  and  chemistry 
which  stretched  themselves  before  his  imagination,  there 
was  abundant  scope  for  the  keenest  analysis,  the  utmost  sift- 
ing of  evidence,  the  most  astute  cross-examination.  Here, 
he  was  assured,  law  and  truth  were  one,  and  never  looked 
askance  at  each  other. 

In  every  research  he  toiled  hand  in  hand  with  his  brother, 
Richard  Albert  Tilghman,  two  years  his  junior,  to  whom  he 


372          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

was  devotedly  attached.  Together,  as  young  men,  they 
journeyed  throughout  Europe,  visiting  a  succession  of 
chemical  works  and  physical  laboratories,  factories  and 
mills,  so  that  they  became  familiar,  as  few  Americans  then 
were,  with  the  best  European  practice  in  both  manufacture 
and  investigation.  On  their  return  home,  Richard  took  up 
the  study  of  chrome  ores ;  these  he  treated  by  new  methods, 
disposing  of  his  patents  to  a  leading  firm  in  Baltimore  for 
a  goodly  sum.  He  then  experimented  with  steam  at  high 
temperatures,  discovering  that  it  parted  fats  into  fatty  acids 
and  glycerine. 

Benjamin,  for  his  part,  gradually  perfected  the  produc- 
tion of  steel  shot,  chilled  to  surpassing  hardness,  and  ex- 
tensively used  for  sawing,  polishing,  and  grinding  stone. 
This  shot,  placed  beneath  a  saw  blade,  cuts  granite  twice  as 
effectively  as  sand,  because  so  tough  as  to  resist  a  wear 
that  would  rapidly  crush  sand,  and  even  emery,  to  powder. 
In  one  experiment  General  Tilghman  found  his  metallic 
granules  tenfold  as  efficient  as  sand,  while  the  wear  on  his 
blade  was  reduced  to  one-fourth  its  percentage  with  sand. 
The  best  sizes  of  shot  run  from  i-ioo  to  1-20  of  an  inch  in 
diameter.  As  important  as  the  economy  of  this  shot  is  the 
accuracy  of  its  cuts.  A  piece  of  marble  or  granite  may 
have  veins  of  unusual  hardness;  these  are  divided  with 
precision,  as  if  the  stone  were  of  uniform  resistance 
throughout. 

At  the  end  of  an  exhaustive  round  of  experiments,  Gen- 
eral Tilghman  said :  "  A  particle  of  sand  is  effective  in  saw- 
ing only  when  it  embeds  itself  in  a  blade,  to  stand  there  as 
a  small  sharp  tooth.  This  tooth  removes  from  the  stone 
below  it  one  grain  at  a  time,  and  no  more.  Contrast  this 
with  the  action  of  shot :  they  roll  over  and  over  between  the 
blade  and  the  stone,  and  as  the  point  of  contact  is  very 
small,  the  pressure  there  concentrated  crushes  the  hardest 
stone  to  splinters  of  appreciable  size  so  that  the  pulveriza- 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN  373 

tion,  imposed  upon  sand,  is  avoided.  Shot  cannot  be 
bruised  or  crushed  by  the  heaviest  pressure,  so  that,  strange 
to  say,  for  all  the  cheapness  of  cand,  it  is  dearer  than  shot, 
task  for  task.  As  a  rule,  work  is  trebled  in  pace  by  the 
adoption  of  shot.  At  first,  to  cut  a  given  stone  the  inventor 
used  shot  of  one  size.  He  soon  found  it  better  to  employ 
shot  of  different  sizes.  In  the  course  of  a  single  sweep  of 
the  blade  the  largest  shot  tend  to  escape  under  the  blade 
first,  then  the  next  in  size,  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  cut, 
so  that  the  blade  always  has  shot  under  it  while  the  stone 
is  being  divided.  Almost  incredible  is  the  durability  of 
shot,  for  all  the  severity  of  its  exposure.  A  gang  of  five  to 
seven  blades  on  Connecticut  brown  stone  will  consume  but 
200  pounds  in  a  month.  A  rip-saw,  on  the  same  stone,  but 
60  pounds  per  month.  A  gang  on  marble  uses  up  about  30 
pounds  per  blade  per  month.  In  sawing  a  square  foot  of 
Quincy  granite  only  two  pounds  are  consumed." 

Shot,  under  a  ring  drill,  is  used  for  driving  wells,  in 
prospecting  for  mines,  quarries,  and  veins  of  oil.  It  is  not 
so  fast  as  a  diamond  drill,  but  in  many  cases  it  is  equally 
satisfactory,  while  much  cheaper.  In  sinking  foundations 
for  the  Terminal  Building,  Church  and  Cortlandt  Streets, 
New  York,  cores  six  to  eight  inches  in  diameter  were  taken 
out  of  solid  rock,  much  more  economically  than  was  feasible 
by  any  other  method.  Not  only  in  cutting  stone,  but  in 
giving  it  a  surface,  this  chilled  iron  shot  opens  a  profitable 
field.  Granite  and  other  hard  stones  were  formerly  rubbed 
smooth  by  sand  or  emery.  At  least  nine-tenths  of  this 
work  may  be  committed  to  chilled  iron  shot,  which  pro- 
ceeds twice  to  thrice  as  fast  as  emery.  The  use  of  shot  de- 
mands no  machinery  whatever.  The  simplest  and  cheapest 
hand-saw  may  be  used,  even  if  but  a  strip  of  sheet  iron  1-16 
of  an  inch  thick,  12  to  14  inches  long,  with  "  V  "  notches 
half  an  inch  broad  and  deep,  about  two  inches  apart.  With 
no  other  appliance  an  ordinary  workman  has  cut  a  groove 


374         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

30  inches  long,  and  about  J4  °f  an  mcn  deep  m  Quincy 
granite  in  twenty  minutes ;  in  soft  stone  his  output  was  pro- 
portionately more.  When  this  process  was  first  adopted, 
rust  was  a  constant  annoyance.  This  rust  is  due  to  the 
trifle  of  carbon  dioxide  which  water  usually  contains.  A 
little  quick-lime  added  to  the  water  greedily  absorbs  this 
dioxide,  and  at  once  rusting  is  impossible.  In  pure  water, 
iron  may  be  immersed  for  weeks  and  never  show  the  slight- 
est trace  of  rust. 

Benjamin  Tilghman  had  been  quietly  conducting  his 
factory  for  some  years  when,  in  1860,  the  threat  of  Civil 
War  was  unmistakable.  His  passionate  love  of  the  Union 
was  aroused,  and  when  Fort  Sumter  was  bombarded,  he  at 
once  enlisted  as  Captain  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Regiment  of 
United  States  Volunteers.  This  regiment,  on  its  way  to  the 
front,  in  common  with  other  Union  troops,  was  mobbed  in 
passing  through  Baltimore,  and  Captain  Tilghman  deemed 
himself  fortunate  to  escape  with  his  life.  In  the  field  he 
speedily  earned  distinction,  and  was  soon  advanced  to  a 
lieutenant-colonelcy,  and  then  to  a  colonelcy.  Early  in  1863 
he  was  stricken  with  Chickamauga  fever,  from  drinking  in- 
fected water,  and  for  weeks  he  hovered  'twixt  life  and 
death.  But  he  recovered  in  time  to  bear  a  doughty  part 
in  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville,  where  he  received  a  severe 
wound  in  a  thigh.  A  slight  deflection  of  the  bullet  would 
have  laid  him  in  his  grave.  He  went  home  to  Philadelphia, 
where,  as  soon  as  he  was  able  to  hobble  about  on  crutches, 
he  was  offered  the  command  of  a  colored  regiment.  This 
he  promptly  accepted.  His  family  believed  that  his  death 
knell  rang  out  as  the  train  bore  him  southward  once  again. 
Their  fears  were  groundless;  he  survived  the  war  in  vig- 
orous health,  while  his  original  regiment,  the  Twenty-sixth, 
'was  cut  to  pieces  not  long  after  his  reenlistment.  The  close 
of  the  war  found  him  a  general  by  brevet,  in  command  of  a 
brigade  in  Florida.  His  interest  in  military  art  and  science 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN  375 

remained  keen  as  long  as  he  lived;  and  no  veteran  of  the 
war,  whether  white  or  black,  ever  appealed  to  him  in  vain 
for  friendly  aid.  His  experience  in  the  field  confirmed  for 
life  his  love  of  fresh  air.  He  had  seen  many  a  soldier, 
desperately  wounded,  recover  health  and  strength  in  a 
breezy  tent.  So  he  was  wont  to  say :  "  Houses  are  tombs, 
carpets  are  shrouds,  curtains  are  grave-clothes." 

One  morning,  not  long  after  peace  had  followed  war, 
General  Tilghman  came  to  a  turning-point  in  his  career,  and 
simply  by  keeping  his  eyes  open  and  thinking  about  what  he 
observed.  Among  the  compounds  with  which  he  had  been 
experimenting  was  a  little  sulphurous  acid  dissolved  in 
water.  Aimlessly  enough,  he  bruised  a  burnt  match  stick 
into  this  liquid,  and  next  day  noticed  that  the  wood  had 
become  mucilaginous,  so  as  to  look  like  paper  pulp.  At 
once  he  asked :  Can  this  solution  convert  wood  into  material 
for  paper?  He  put  his  surmise  to  a  test,  and  proved  it  to 
be  sound.  What  gave  particular  point  to  his  quest  was  the 
fact  that  common  paper  for  printers'  use  had  then  risen  to 
twenty-eight  cents  in  currency  per  pound,  a  price  almost 
prohibitory.  It  was  then  usual  for  grocers  and  butchers 
to  buy  old  newspapers  at  half  price,  and  use  them  for  wrap- 
ping their  parcels.  During  the  Civil  War  cotton  at  one 
time  reached  $1.98  per  pound;  linen,  used  as  a  substitute, 
was  almost  as  dear.  As  these,  and  their  rags,  had  been  the 
main  sources  of  paper  stock,  there  was  an  earnest  quest,  in 
many  fields,  for  substances  from  which  paper  might  be 
produced. 

Straw  had  been  employed  as  an  admixture  for  the  coarsest 
brands,  and  though  their  sheets  were  yellow  and  brittle, 
their  preparation  by  alkalis  had  taught  the  manufacturers 
how  to  attack  a  vastly  better  material — wood  fiber.  There- 
fore, when  General  Tilghman  began  following  up  the  fate 
of  his  burnt  match  stick,  with  his  brother's  aid,  he  did  not 
enter  upon  vacant  territory. 


376          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

In  their  chemical  production  of  paper,  the  Tilghmans 
had  many  forerunners  at  home  and  abroad.  As  early  as 
1821  paper  was  made  from  straw  by  Judge  Henry  Petti- 
bone,  of  Meadville,  Pennsylvania.  One  day  he  observed  a 
tub  which  had  just  been  emptied  of  lye.  On  the  ground  lay 
a  handful  of  straw  which  had  served  as  a  strainer  for  the 
liquid.  The  Judge  examined  a  pinch  of  it  in  his  hand;  it 
seemed  just  such  a  strong  fiber  as  might  produce  paper. 
He  took  some  of  this  fiber  and  a  little  clean  straw  to  a 
paper-maker,  who  soon  turned  out  from  the  straw  a  sheet 
of  fairly  good  paper.  Of  course,  the  sheet  was  straw- 
colored,  and  so  brittle  that  it  was  suitable  only  for  wrap- 
ping, but  when  manufactured  by  the  ton  it  met  a  wide  and 
profitable  demand.  In  1854,  Alfred  C.  Mellier  patented 
in  France  a  method  of  deriving  paper  pulp  from  poplar 
wood  by  boiling  the  fibers  in  caustic  soda,  under  pressure, 
at  310°  Fahrenheit,  and  then  treating  the  product  with  a 
solution  of  chloride  of  lime.  His  boiler  was  rotary,  so  as 
to  keep  its  contents  from  matting  together.  Heat  was  ap- 
plied by  a  steam  jacket.  In  1855,  Hugh  Burgess,  of  Roger's 
Ford,  Pennsylvania,  patented  a  similar  process.  He  was 
followed  by  other  inventors  until,  in  1866,  the  Tilghmans 
carried  through  a  round  of  experiments  which,  chemically, 
exhausted  the  field,  and  left  little  or  nothing  to  be  discov- 
ered by  their  successors,  except  in  one  particular.  As  this 
affected  the  material  chosen  for  digesters,  it  was  so  vital 
that  its  lack  caused  a  long  delay  in  the  financial  success  of 
the  Tilghman  process.  For  the  first  digesters,  in  the  Tilgh- 
man  mill  at  Manayunk,  near  Philadelphia,  lead  was  the 
lining ;  this  was  so  rapidly  corroded  by  its  acid  contents  that 
repairs  and  renewals  entailed  a  net  loss  to  the  patentees  of 
about  $40,000,  leading  them  to  abandon  their  enterprise. 
It  was  only  in  1883,  seventeen  years  after  General  Tilgh- 
man was  granted  his  patent,  that  digesters  were  built  of 
concrete  so  as  to  resist  corrosion  as  lead  cannot.  As  usual 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN  377 

with  a  patent  of  promise,  the  Tilghman  method  excited 
the  cupidity  of  infringers,  who  would  fain  hide  their  theft 
by  mutilating  the  property  stolen.  But  their  every  de- 
parture, however  slight,  from  the  Tilghman  rules  of  proce- 
dure, opened  the  door  to  utter  failure,  no  matter  what  sub- 
stance was  molded  into  digesters.  No  better  evidence  can 
be  adduced  as  to  General  Tilghman's  thorough  mastery  of 
the  principles  involved  in  bringing  forests  under  tribute  to 
the  printing  press. 

It  is  worth  while  to  recall  his  method  as  originally  out- 
lined by  his  own  hand :  "  Let  the  whitest  parts  of  wood  be 
chosen,  and  cut  across  the  grain  into  slices  one-eighth  to 
one-fourth  of  an  inch  in  length.  A  strong  vessel,  of  any 
convenient  size  and  shape,  lined  with  lead,  duly  furnished 
with  pipes  and  other  accessories,  is  to  be  filled  about  two- 
thirds  with  water.  A  solution  of  sulphurous  acid  and  lime 
sulphite  in  water,  having  a  specific  gravity  of  1.08  or  so, 
is  then  introduced  until  the  wood  is  completely  covered  and 
the  vessel  is  nearly  full.  Then  the  vessel  is  tightly  closed, 
and,  by  means  of  a  steam  jacket,  its  temperature  is  brought 
to  260°  Fahrenheit,  to  be  there  maintained  for  six  to  eight 
hours.  The  steam  is  then  shut  off;  fresh  water  is  forced 
into  the  top  of  the  vessel;  and  the  acid  solution  escapes 
from  below  into  a  lead-lined  tub,  where  it  is  boiled  until  the 
sulphurous  acid  is  expelled.  This  gas,  piped  to  a  condenser, 
is  absorbed  by  cold  water  for  repeated  use  in  future  opera- 
tions. The  lime  sulphite,  usually  deposited  in  the  heated 
vessel,  may  also  be  used  over  and  over  again.  The  woody 
fiber  is  thoroughly  washed  and  drained,  when  it  is  fit  to  be 
worked  into  paper  by  suitable  machinery." 

By  removing  samples  of  his  product  every  twenty  min- 
utes, the  inventor  ascertained  just  how  the  process  went 
on  from  stage  to  stage.  At  first  the  wood  was  loosened 
into  coarse  fibers:  these  slowly  became  separated  into 
threads  finer  and  finer,  until  perfect  pulp  appeared.  All  the 


378          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

cement  which  had  bound  together  the  fibers  was  dissolved 
into  the  boiling  liquid.  Of  course,  cane,  bamboo,  and 
palmetto  required  longer  cooking  than  flax,  esparto,  and 
similar  grasses,  reeds,  and  other  annual  plants  of  compara- 
tively weak  structure.  Intermediate  in  toughness,  and 
therefore  in  time  of  boiling,  came  the  poplars,  spruces,  and 
balsams  which  are  to-day  the  staple  of  the  pulp  industry. 
When  a  modified  treatment  was  bestowed  upon  straw  and 
grass,  osiers  and  saplings,  used  for  hats,  hoops,  baskets,  and 
mats,  they  soon  acquired  a  pliability  which  facilitated  and 
improved  their  manufacture. 

For  a  round  of  uses  steadily  growing  wider,  paper  may 
be  of  any  hue  whatever,  as  when  employed  for  wrapping 
or  box-making.  Here  no  lime  sulphite  need  enter  the  boil- 
ing liquor,  and  the  process  may  be  much  abridged,  espe- 
cially in  washing  and  cleansing  the  produced  fiber.  Gen- 
eral Tilghman  early  came  to  the  discovery  that  good  re- 
sults are  attained  at  210°  Fahrenheit,  two  degrees  or  so 
below  the  ordinary  boiling-point  cf  water ;  and,  further,  that 
digestion  requires  no  artificial  pressure,  although  pressure 
greatly  hastens  the  process.  To-day  digesters  which  may 
be  17  feet  wide,  and  60  feet  high,  are  constructed  with  a 
double  course  of  masonry  laid  in  cement  mortar  upon  an 
iron  shell.  The  course  next  to  the  shell  is  composed  of 
very  hard  porous  bricks  laid  in  mortar  of  equal  parts  of 
sand  and  Portland  cement ;  the  next,  or  inside  course,  is  built 
of  vitrified,  non-porous  bricks  laid  in  mortar  compounded  of 
Portland  cement,  litharge,  sand,  and  glycerine.  The  lack 
of  this  one  link  in  the  Tilghman  chain  held  back  for  years 
a  process  which  now  yields  in  the  United  States  more  than 
a  million  tons  of  paper  pulp  every  year. 

Since  General  Tilghman's  time,  striking  improvements 
have  been  effected  in  apparatus  for  burning  sulphur,  and 
for  speedily  absorbing  the  resulting  sulphurous  acid  gas. 
Much,  too,  has  been  accomplished  in  utilizing  by-products 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN  379 

formerly  thrown  away.  But  most  noteworthy  of  all  are  ad- 
vances in  the  mechanism  which  builds  all  kinds  of  paper 
from  pulp,  with  swiftness  and  economy,  and  of  uniformly 
sound  quality. 

Spruce,  the  chief  material  for  pulp,  is  becoming  scarce,  so 
that  experiments  with  other  and  cheaper  woods  have  been 
conducted  at  the  Forest  Products  Laboratory,  Wausau,  Wis- 
consin, directed  by  the  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture. The  chemical  engineer  in  charge,  Mr.  J.  H. 
Thickens,  reported  in  December,  1911: — "Not  only  have 
very  promising  sheets  of  pulp  been  obtained  from  both  the 
hemlock  and  jack  pine,  but  paper  has  been  made  from  them 
on  commercial  machines,  operating  at  high  speed,  and  under 
all  other  conditions  of  actual  commercial  practice,  which 
has  the  strength,  finish,  and  appearance  of  standard  news 
paper.  The  production  per  grinder,  the  horse-power  con- 
sumption per  ton,  and  the  yield  per  cord  approximate  the 
averages  which  obtain  in  the  grinding  of  spruce." 

General  Tilghman  gave  his  sulphite  process  a  thorough 
and  costly  test,  but,  balked  as  he  was  by  the  corrosion  of 
his  digesters,  he  abandoned  a  manufacture  from  which  he 
had  expected  great  things,  and  which  to-day  far  exceeds  his 
most  sanguine  hopes.  Without  repining  or  hesitation  he 
turned  from  chemistry  to  mechanics,  to  strike  a  target  much 
more  important  than  at  first  attracted  his  eye.  His  experi- 
ments, ending  in  the  sand  blast,  brought  him  to  one  of  the 
few  underived  inventions  of  all  time.  Nobody  disputes  his 
title,  or  claims  a  share  in  his  victory.  And  yet,  for  ages 
Nature  has  been  giving  Art  broad  hints  in  this  very  field. 
As  long  ago  as  1838,  to  cite  one  record  among  many,  Pro- 
fessor W.  P.  Blake,  of  Yale  College,  traveling  through  the 
Pass  of  San  Bernardino,  California,  noticed  granite  deeply 
channeled  by  sweeping  sand.  Said  he :  "  Even  quartz  was 
cut  away  and  polished;  garnets  and  tourmalines  were  also 
cut  and  left  with  polished  surfaces.  Where  a  garnet  or  a 


38o          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

lump  of  quartz  was  embedded  in  compact  feldspar,  and 
favorably  presented  for  the  action  of  the  sand,  the  feldspar 
was  cut  away  around  the  hard  mineral,  which  was  thus  left 
in  relief  above  the  general  surface.  In  Monument  Park, 
Colorado,  is  a  narrow  valley  where  rounded  columns  ten 
to  forty  feet  high  stand  here  and  there:  in  many  cases 
they  are  surmounted  with  grotesque  cap-like  coverings  bal- 
anced upon  frail  pinnacles.  They  were  carved  out  by  the 
sand,  whirling  about  in  eddies  of  air  and  water,  so  as  to 
act  like  the  chisels  of  a  lathe.  Where  the  depressions  were 
deepest,  the  rock  strata  were  soft  and  yielding,  and  read- 
ily cut  away.  Where  the  opposing  surface  was  hard,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  cap-pieces,  the  action  was  less  rapid. 
Glancing  off  from  these,  the  whole  force  of  the  sand  was 
directed  against  the  strata  below,  reducing  them  in  size, 
until  there  was  hardly  enough  stem  to  sustain  the  weight 
above." 

All  this  is  repeated  in  Wellington  Bay,  New  Zealand,  and 
wherever  else  rocks  of  varying  resistance  are  assaulted  by 
storms  of  sand.  Often,  doubtless,  this  has  suggested  imi- 
tation by  art.  In  most  cases  it  is  likely  that  the  impulse  to 
experiment  has  been  checked  by  the  fear  that  an  artificial 
sand  storm  would  be  too  slow  to  have  commercial  value. 
Centuries  have  been  required  to  do  the  work  described  by 
Professor  Blake  and  his  fellow  explorers.  General  Tilgh- 
man  was  the  first  to  follow  up  suggestion  by  actual  trial, 
and  find,  as  many  another  inquirer  has  found,  that  Nature 
often  holds  in  her  hands  prizes  easier  to  pluck  than  they 
seem  to  be. 

General  Tilghman  was  a  gentleman  of  unusual  reserve 
and  reticence:  and  a  quest  as  to  how  the  sand  blast  sug- 
gested itself  to  him  has  unearthed  nothing  less  than  a  myth 
in  the  making.  Surviving  friends  of  his  are  wont  to  say 
that,  late  in  the  sixties,  he  traveled  to  Egypt,  and  paid  a 
customary  visit  to  the  Sphinx,  remarking  a  deep  groove 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN  381 

across  the  back  of  its  neck,  which  he  referred  to  the  sand 
which  had,  for  centuries,  assailed  the  prone  figure.  There 
and  then,  say  the  mythmakers,  it  occurred  to  him  that  an 
artificial  gale,  laden  with  sharp  sand,  would  exert  a  cutting 
effect  of  the  same  kind,  at  a  pace  which  only  experiment 
could  ascertain.  To  experiment  accordingly  he  appealed, 
with  the  result  that  he  gave  the  world  his  sand  blast.  This 
plausible  story  is  untrue.  General  Tilghman  was  never  in 
the  land  of  the  Pharaohs.  How,  then,  arose  this  Egyptian 
tale?  Simply  enough.  In  1873  Professor  John  Tyndall 
was  shown  the  sand  blast  in  Boston,  and  compared  its  work 
with  that  of  the  sand  which  had  slowly  carved  the  Sphinx 
of  the  desert.  Here  lay  the  sole  foundation  for  a  stubborn, 
because  widely  published,  fable.  Another  tradition  is  that 
General  Tilghman  observed  how  the  masonry  of  Saint 
Paul's  Cathedral  in  London  had  its  corners  rounded  by 
exposure  to  blasts  laden  with  dust  and  dirt.  Another  and 
more  probable  story  is  that,  while  a  soldier  in  the  Southern 
States,  he  observed  rocks  whose  softer  layers  had  been 
deeply  eroded  by  wind-blown  sand.  Indeed,  all  along  the 
Atlantic  Coast,  at  Nausett,  Massachusetts,  and  many  an- 
other lighthouse,  one  may  see  the  panes  of  lower  windows 
dulled  to  opacity  by  a  bombardment  of  sand.  Yet  another 
supposition,  lacking  evidence,  is  that  General  Tilghman  re- 
marked the  cutting  action  of  solids  ejected  from  muskets 
and  cannon  as  part  of  their  explosives. 

The  present  writer,  in  striving  to  hunt  down  how  General 
Tilghman  was  first  impelled  to  experiment  with  his  sand 
blast,  came  at  last  to  the  Franklin  Institute,  in  Seventh 
Street,  Philadelphia,  that  most  venerable  storehouse  of 
science  in  America.  There,  in  the  Journal  of  the  Institute 
for  1871,  was  a  record  by  Mr.  Coleman  Sellers,  an  eminent 
engineer,  of  an  early  exhibit  of  the  sand  blast.  Mr.  Sellers 
says  that  General  Tilghman  saw  a  jet  of  sand  impelled  by 
steam  escaping  at  high  pressure,  and  its  remarkable  effect 


382 


LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


TILGHMAN  SAND  BLAST 

Working  parts  of  upright  machine:  i,  Main  frame.  4,  Blast 
frame,  u,  Blast  jet.  19,  Sand-feed  hopper.  20,  Sand  pipe.  22, 
Round  rubber  ring.  23,  Round  rubber  ring.  24,  Sand  jet.  25, 
Chilled  tube,  in  which  sand  and  steam  mix.  26,  Cone. 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN 


383 


induced  him  to  repeat  as  an  experiment  what  he  first  beheld 
as  an  accident.  He  soon  discovered  that  a  blast  of  sharp 
sand  wrought  as  deep  an  incision  in  one  minute  as  wind- 
blown sand  in  a  year.  In  an  early  test  he  cut  a  hole  one 
and  one-half  inches  wide  in  a  slab  of  corundum  one  and  one- 
half  inches  thick,  in  25  minutes.  His  steam  was  at  a 
pressure  of  300  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  which  he  soon  re- 
marked to  be  excessive ;  in  ordinary  practice  he  found  10  to 


THE  TILGHMAN  SAND-BLAST  MACHINE 

20  pounds  to  be  enough.  In  economy  his  first  apparatus 
has  never  been  surpassed.  A  small  annular  jet  of  steam 
escaped  into  a  wide  tube,  inducing  a  current  of  air  through 
a  narrow  central  tube.  This  air  carried  sand  as  it  fell 
from  a  hopper,  which  became  thoroughly  mixed  with  the 
steam  jet.  Appliances  of  this  simple  kind  were  used  to 
inscribe  no  fewer  than  274,000  tombstones  of  soldiers  in  the 
national  cemeteries  at  Arlington,  Virginia,  and  elsewhere. 
The  cost,  but  $3.35  each,  was  much  less  than  would  have 


384          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

been  paid  for  chiseled  lettering.  This  apparatus,  effective 
as  it  was,  had  faults  so  serious  that  it  was  soon  discarded. 
The  sand  became  damp  from  admixture  with  the  steam,  so 
that  it  clogged  its  feed  pipes  unless  it  was  carefully  dried 
before  use.  Glass  was  apt  to  be  cracked  by  the  heat  of  the 
sand;  iron  and  steel  were  rusted.  To  avoid  these  troubles 
there  was  recourse  to  compressed  air,  faultless  in  its  work, 
but  much  more  costly  than  a  direct  steam  blast. 

In  1884  Jeremiah  E.  Mathewson  perfected  what  General 
Tilghman  had  begun,  retaining  the  advantage  of  steam  im- 
pulsion, while  avoiding  its  drawbacks.  In  the  machine 
which  he  devised,  sand  receives  momentum  from  a  steam 
jet,  as  in  the  first  Tilghman  design.  But  now,  before  the 
mingled  sand  and  steam  hit  their  target,  they  meet  a  coun- 
terblast of  cool  air,  which  condenses  and  sweeps  aside  the 
steam,  while  it  allows  the  sand  to  proceed  unchecked  to 
do  its  work  in  a  dry  and  cool  condition.  This  Mathewson 
apparatus,  entirely  self-contained,  has  no  moving  parts 
whatever.  It  is  started  by  simply  attaching  a  steam  pipe, 
and  providing  an  exhaust  flue  for  the  spent  steam.* 

Thanks  to  General  Tilghman,  many  amateurs  have  ex- 
ecuted capital  work  with  an  inexpensive  sand  stream,  dis- 
pensing with  a  blast  altogether.  They  have  filled  a  hopper 
with  sharp,  dry  sand,  and  placed  it  about  ten  feet  above  a 
table.  From  the  hopper  to  within  two  inches  of  the  table 
runs  a  vertical  pipe,  through  which  the  sand  falls  upon 
panes  of  glass  or  other  objects  to  be  treated.  Beneath  the 
table  a  second  hopper  receives  the  sand  after  its  work  is 
done ;  as  soon  as  the  first  hopper  is  empty,  this  second  hop- 
per takes  its  place.  As  a  rule  a  blast  is  delivered  from  a 


*A  Giffard  injector,  with  equal  simplicity,  employs  a  steam  jet  to 
drive  water  into  a  boiler.  As  the  steam  condenses,  it  imparts  its  mo- 
mentum to  the  feed  water,  so  that  with  no  moving  part  whatever,  an 
injector  does  all  the  work  of  an  elaborate  pump. 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN 


385 


simple  tube ;  in  some  cases  it  is  preferable  to  employ  a  tube 
with  a  long,  narrow  orifice. 

How  does  sand,  whether  falling  by  gravity  or  impelled  by 
a  steam  jet,  exert  so  rapid  an  effect?  First  of  all,  we  must 
choose  sharp,  unworn  sand,  such  as  abounds  in  long 
stretches  of  the  Atlantic  seashore.  Sand  of  this  sort,  in 
well-planned  manufacture,  is  sifted  into  sizes  each  suited 
to  a  specific  task.  A  decorator  of  tumblers  selects  the 


ETCHING  WITH  SAND  FROM  A  HOPPER 


finest  grains  he  can  get.  A  foundryman,  who  wishes  to 
scour  stove-castings,  takes  the  coarsest  grains  to  be  had. 
Whatever  its  size,  sand  in  a  blast  neither  cuts,  grinds,  nor 
abrades  the  surface  it  strikes.  To  compare  small  things 
with  large,  the  grains  act  much  as  artillery  projectiles  smash 
a  wall  of  masonry,  each  shot  striking  independently  of 
every  other.  In  this  action  the  sand  blast  differs  from  all 
other  processes,  and  stands  alone.  A  grain  of  sand  has 
many  angles,  and  the  sharpest  of  these  comes  to  the  front, 


386          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

arrow  fashion,  as  the  particle  flies  through  the  air.  The 
momentum  of  the  particle,  small  as  it  is,  strikes  from  a 
mere  point,  so  that  even  granite  gives  way  before  it,  and, 
indeed,  everything  else,  however  hard,  excepting  only  the 
diamond.  At  first  an  observer  is  astonished  as  he  sees 
corundum  swiftly  perforated  by  sand  grains  much  less 
hard  and  tough. 

Of  course,  the  sand  blast  works  fastest  when  directed 
upon  glass,  china,  porcelain,  or  other  brittle  substances. 
These  are  depolished  in  a  twinkling,  and,  strange  to  say, 
by  a  blast  which  the  hand  can  bear  without  injury  or  even 
discomfort.  Rubber,  paper,  leather,  and  other  elastic  ma- 
terials repel  the  sand  so  that  its  blows  are  almost  without 
effect.  This  opens  the  door  to  a  simple  means  of  decora- 
tion. A  lamp  shade,  let  us  suppose,  is  to  be  ornamented 
with  an  arabesque  or  a  floral  design.  This,  executed  in 
paper,  is  laid  upon  the  glass,  when  the  shade  is  quickly 
moved  in  front  of  the  sand  blast.  All  the  uncovered  parts 
of  the  glass  are  fast  depolished,  so  that  in  a  moment  they 
look  as  if  they  had  been  neatly  ground  by  an  emery-wheel ; 
all  the  parts  covered  by  the  design  are  unaffected,  so  that, 
when  the  paper  is  washed  off,  clear  glass  is  uncovered. 

Quite  different  is  the  effect  of  this  blast  upon  wrought 
iron ;  at  first  its  surface  is  merely  indented ;  after  a  few 
minutes  the  uppermost  particles  of  iron,  being  repeatedly 
bent,  break  down  and  crumble.  A  powerful  blast  soon 
cleans  a  forging  or  a  casting  from  scale  and  dirt,  while 
the  metal  beneath  resists  the  gale,  and  emerges  bright  and 
unworn,  unless  the  bombardment  is  prolonged  of  set 
purpose. 

When  iron  is  pickled  in  an*  acid  solution  as  a  means  of 
cleansing,  or  glass  in  like  manner  is  corroded  to  take  a 
pattern,  there  is  attack  not  only  in  front,  but  from  the 
sides,  and  this  is  often  harmful.  Here  the  sand  blast  has 
a  notable  advantage^  because  its  blows  are  delivered  directly 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN  387 

in  the  face  and  nowhere  else.  Yet  these  blows  are  never  so 
rude  as  to  break  the  most  delicate  ware,  although,  when 
continued  long  enough,  they  pierce  the  toughest  granites, 
and  even  corundum  itself.  When  glass  is  manufactured  in 
layers  of  different  hues,  the  sand  blast  produces  cameo  ef- 
fects of  great  beauty.  It  may  then  swiftly  turn  out  labels 
for  measures,  and  for  the  large  glass  bottles  used  by  chem- 
ists and  druggists.  It  removes  a  scale  from  forgings  and 
castings  as  a  preparation  for  gilding  and  enameling,  tinning 
or  nickeling.  It  scours  the  outside  of  a  bank-safe,  and 
then  smooths  the  armor  plates  of  warships.  It  incises  mar- 
ble, limestone,  or  granite  with  letters  and  ornaments.  It 
takes  off  dirt  and  discolorations  from  buildings  of  brick 
and  stone.  It  removes  rust  and  scale  from  tubes,  tanks, 
and  boilers,  so  as  greatly  to  promote  their  efficiency.  It 
cleanses  the  exteriors  of  boats  and  ships  so  as  to  quicken 
their  pace  through  water.  Not  only  iron,  but  glass,  takes 
a  firmer  grasp  of  paint  when  subjected  for  a  moment  to 
a  sand  stream.  The  same  simple  agent  refaces  wheels  of 
emery  and  corundum,  and  then  mildly  granulates  the  cel- 
luloid films  for  cameras.  Delivered  upon  wood,  it  brings 
out  its  grain  with  a  relief  and  beauty  denied  to  any  other 
method.  It  may  yet  replace  chisels  as  wielded  in  stone- 
carving  and  sculpture. 

In  manufacturing  tanks,  reservoirs,  and  boilers  to  be  used 
under  high  pressures,  only  perfect  joints  are  permissible. 
In  the  production  of  such  joints,  the  sand  blast  has  im- 
mense value.  It  takes  off  every  particle  of  scale  before 
riveting  begins,  so  that  two  applied  surfaces  of  iron  or 
steel  may  be  in  the  closest  possible  contact.  In  ordinary 
practice  rust  and  dirt  may  separate  these  surfaces,  so  that 
leaks  follow  upon  extreme  pressures,  to  be  cured  only  by 
excessive  and  harmful  calking.  A  sand  blast,  in  like 
manner,  prepares  steel  rails  and  girders  for  welding,  so  as 
to  insure  perfect  union.  But  it  is  in  foundries  that  a 


388          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

sand  blast  finds  its  widest  utility.  A  time-honored  method 
of  producing  a  clean  surface  on  an  iron  or  steel  casting 
is  by  immersion  in  an  acid  bath.  This  may  weaken  the 
metal  as  much  as  seven  per  cent.  Furthermore,  a  casting 
thus  treated  must  be  laid  aside  to  dry  for  a  day  or  two  be- 
fore it  can  be  used.  A  sand  blast  does  not  impair  the 
strength  of  a  casting  one  whit,  and  leaves  it  not  only  clean, 
but  dry,  so  that  it  may  be  used  immediately.  An  operator 
wielding  a  sand  blast  consuming,  every  minute,  120  cubic 
feet  of  air,  compressed  to  60  pounds  per  square  inch,  will 
clean  as  many  castings,  and  remove  as  many  cores,  as  six 
men  with  chisels,  hammers,  and  brushes.  And  the  blast 
will  leave  a  finish  on  its  work  that  manual  labor  cannot 
approach.  When  such  a  casting  goes  to  a  milling  cutter,  or 
other  machine  tool,  a  further  saving  ensues  from  the  absence 
of  all  resisting  scale  and  rust.  At  Sheffield,  where  a  blast 
was  directed  upon  armor  plate,  it  proceeded  at  one  square 
foot  per  minute,  its  chilled  iron  sand  being  flung  at  20 
pounds  pressure  per  square  inch. 

As  to  this  iron  sand  a  word  may  be  said.  It  is  derived 
from  just  such  shot  as  General  Tilghman  manufactured  at 
the  outset  of  his  career.  It  is  made  up  of  minute  spheroidal 
pellets  of  hard,  chilled  iron,  produced  by  letting  molten 
metal  fall  through  fine  holes  in  a  plate  of  fire  clay.  Below 
this  colander,  in  an  atmosphere  deprived  of  oxygen,  the 
drops  are  atomized  by  jets  of  superheated  steam.  The  red- 
hot  globules  then  fall  into  the  water,  which  chills  them  into 
intense  hardness.  When  cool,  they  are  sifted  into  sizes 
which  vary  from  1-40,000  to  1-16  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 
This  iron  sand  cuts  stone  better  than  does  common  sand  or 
emery.  When  granite  is  cut  with  a  chisel  and  mallet,  the 
stone  is  apt  to  be  bruised  or  fractured  beyond  the  line  of 
cutting,  so  that,  after  a  hand  dressing,  there  may  be  one- 
sixth  to  one-fourth  of  an  inch  to  grind  away.  This  waste 
and  loss  are  wholly  avoided  by  using  a  sand  blast. 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN  389 

Sand  in  water  does  work  which  dry  sand  cannot  do. 
When,  for  example,  globes  and  shades  for  lamps  are  to 
be  treated,  sand  and  water,  duly  mixed,  yield  effects  much 
more  delicate  than  are  otherwise  feasible.  Usually  the  sand 
is  mingled  with  three  times  its  weight  of  water,  the  mixture 
being  thoroughly  stirred,  and  cast  as  a  quick  jet  against  the 
glass,  which  is  rotated  in  a  suitable  holder.  A  seven-inch 
globe  is  well  ground  in  thirty  seconds.  This  excellent  plan 
was  anticipated  as  far  back  as  1846  by  George  Escol  Sellers, 
at  the  factory  of  Miles  Greenwood,  in  Cincinnati,  where  he 
built  a  machine  to  scour  pots  and  kettles  with  sand  and 
water.  After  the  surfaces  were  thus  scoured  they  passed 
into  a  zinc  chloride  solution,  and  thence  into  molten  metal 
for  their  final  surfacing.  For  some  unknown  reason  this 
ingenious  plan  was  discontinued  without  having  been 
patented,  or  in  any  way  made  public.  In  1871,  twenty-five 
years  later,  in  commenting  upon  the  sand  blast,  Coleman 
Sellers,  of  Philadelphia,  drew  attention  to  his  brother's  old 
and  discarded  mixture  of  sand  and  water,  which,  indeed, 
may  have  been  exemplified  by  many  a  housewife  as  she 
cleansed  her  kitchen  ware  with  sand  from  a  neighboring 
beach. 

Whether  a  sand  blast  be  wet  or  dry,  it  is  an  excellent  aid 
in  finishing  files  and  rasps  as  first  manufactured,  or  in  re- 
storing their  points  after  wear.  The  old  method  of  re- 
newal was  to  grind  out  the  remains  of  the  teeth,  recut  and 
reharden  their  points,  entailing  a  good  deal  of  cost  and 
trouble,  while  reducing  the  thickness  of  every  blank.  A 
worn-down  file  is  quickly  resharpened  when  slowly  drawn 
several  times  from  tang  to  point  between  two  convergent 
streams  of  fine  sand,  striking  the  metal  at  90  degrees.  For 
this  work  the  best  sand  is  that  which  has  been  used  to  grind 
plate  glass.  Two  or  three  minutes'  exposure  will  resharpen 
a  14-inch  rough  file.  Second-cut  or  smooth  files  are  treated 
even  more  rapidly.  It  is  amazing  to  pick  up  an  old  file, 


390         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

so  dull  as  to  be  almost  worthless,  and  find  that  a  sand  blast 
restores  its  keenness  in  a  few  seconds.  And  a  new  file  is 
improved  when  held  under  a  sand  blast,  especially  if  its  teeth 
curl  over  slightly.  Repeated  tests  have  proved  that  files 
thus  treated  have  been  increased  in  their  cutting  quality  as 
much  as  one-eighth  on  both  steel  and  cast  iron,  and  on  gun 
metal  almost  double.  Many  manufacturers  subject  all  their 
files  to  sand  blasts  at  frequent  intervals,  so  as  to  keep  them 
up  to  the  highest  notch  of  efficiency,  by  preventing  their 
teeth  from  flattening  down. 

Tools  of  great  importance,  and  exposed  to  severe  strains, 
are  the  cutters  of  milling  machines.  In  an  approved 
method  of  production  they  are  hardened  and  tempered  in 
the  usual  manner,  then  dipped  in  oil,  and  finally  sandblasted. 
If  there  has  been  any  overheating  in  the  furnace,  though 
not  enough  to  do  apparent  harm,  says  Mr.  J.  V.  Wood- 
worth,  cracks  will  appear  on  the  surfaces  of  the  teeth. 
These  cracks,  which  are  best  seen  immediately  after  sand- 
blasting, are  frequently  so  small  that  they  cannot  be  detected 
by  ordinary  means. 

To  clean  castings  is  one  of  the  principal  uses  of  the  sand 
blast.  Here  a  capital  aid  was  devised  by  Mr.  J.  E.  Mathew- 
son, — a  tumbling  barrel  in  which  the  castings  are  placed, 
with  apertures  through  each  axis  for  a  sand  blast.  Through 
its  perforated  sides  the  abraded  powders  slowly  drop.  As 
the  barrel  turns  but  thrice  in  a  minute,  no  harm  befalls  its 
contents. 

Much  more  stubborn  than  rust  or  scale  on  a  casting  are 
the  layers  of  paint  successively  laid  upon  a  ship.  Yet  even 
these  disappear  under  a  prolonged  attack  from  a  heavy 
sand  blast.  The  steamship  Austrian,  of  the  Allan  Line, 
had,  'tween  decks,  coat  upon  coat  of  sea  paint,  until  it 
stood  not  less  than  one-eighth  of  an  inch  thick.  It  was  re- 
moved down  to  the  bright  metal,  at  the  rate  of  12  square 


BENJAMIN  C.  TILGHMAN  391 

feet  per  hour,  by  applying  60  cubic  feet  of  sand-laden  air 
per  minute,  compressed  to  50  pounds  per  square  inch.  A 
reservoir  holding  15  cubic  feet  supplied  a  nozzle  7-16  of 
an  inch  in  diameter.  In  angles  and  around  bolts  the  re- 
moval of  paint  was  absolute, — a  feat  impossible  to  ham- 
mers, chisels,  and  scrapers.  If  paint  can  be  detached  by 
an  air  blast  carrying  sand,  an  air  blast  laden  with  paint 
far  outspeeds  brush  work.  A  simple  Redman  spraying 
machine  was  thus  employed  to  paint  the  buildings  of  the 
Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago,  in  1893.  It  covered  300 
square  feet  per  hoijr,  and  drove  its  pigment  deeply  into  the 
walls  and  ceilings. 

While  always  exploring  new  territory  for  the  sand  blast, 
General  Tilghman  felt  a  keen  interest  in  the  new  weapons 
of  war,  especially  in  the  torpedoes  constantly  being  designed 
and  tested.  In  association  with  his  brother,  he  planned  a 
torpedo  to  be  propelled  rocket  fashion,  by  a  slow-burning 
powder.  For  its  excursions  they  sank  on  their  grounds  a 
trough  80  feet  long,  which  they  filled  with  water.  They 
found  it  impossible  to  avoid  premature  explosions  of  the 
powder,  so  that  repeatedly  their  models  were  suddenly 
burst  into  splinters,  which  crashed  into  the  surrounding 
walls  and  rafters.  General  Tilghman,  inured  as  he  had 
been  to  shot  and  shell  in  actual  warfare,  bore  these  explo- 
sions with  equanimity.  His  nephew  and  assistant,  Benja- 
min C.  Tilghman,  II.,  had  never  been  a  soldier,  so  that 
at  first  he  displayed  much  agility  as  he  dodged  the  flying 
missiles.  It  was  a  good  while  before  he  came  to  his 
uncle's  indifference  to  unlooked  for  bombardments.  He 
was  heartily  glad  when  these  experiments,  acknowledged 
to  be  a  failure,  were  abandoned  for  good  and  all. 

Thus  closed  the  active  work  of  General  Tilghman.  As 
he  approached  his  eightieth  year  his  step  became  halting 
and  his  pulse  feeble.  In  February,  1901,  he  was  stricken 


392          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

by  paralysis ;  five  months  later,  on  July  3d,  he  passed  away 
at  his  residence,  1114  Girard  Street.  He  was  unmarried. 
The  establishment  which  he  founded,  and  where  his  sci- 
entific library  is  preserved,  flourishes,  as  during  his  lifetime, 
at  1126  South  Eleventh  Street,  Philadelphia. 


OTTMAR   MERGENTHALER 

ON  the  morning  of  October  26,  1872,  the  steamer  Berlin 
from  Bremen  reached  its  dock  at  Locust  Point,  in  Balti- 
more. Its  five  hundred  steerage  passengers  were  mainly 
immigrants  bound  for  the  West,  with  here  and  there  an 
artisan  who  hoped  to  earn  good  wages  without  going  far 
from  his  landing-place.  Among  these  was  a  lithe  and 
comely  young  fellow  of  eighteen,  about  five  feet  seven  in 
height,  his  large,  well-shaped  head  firmly  set  on  broad 
shoulders.  As  he  strides  up-town  he  turns  his  calm  blue 
eyes  with  wonder  on  the  traffic  that  impedes  him  at  every 
step.  In  a  round-topped  wooden  trunk  he  brings  a  good 
stock  of  clothes  for  the  approaching  winter,  and  thirty 
dollars  in  cash.  More  important  still  is  the  silver  watch 
in  his  vest  pocket.  He  has  adjusted  its  movement  daily 
during  the  voyage,  so  that  it  is  now  as  accurate  as  the 
ship's  own  chronometer.  Indeed,  our  young  German  could, 
at  a  pinch,  make  such  a  watch  if  he  liked,  for  it  is  as  a 
watchmaker  that  he  registered  himself  on  the  Berlin.  It 
is  this  skill  in  watchmaking  that  assures  Ottmar  Mergen- 
thaler  that  he  will  devise  the  best  machine  to  supplant  the 
compositor.  To-day  in  America  four  out  of  five  automatic 
typesetters  are  linotypes  created  by  this  German  immigrant, 
who  thus  stands  beside  his  compatriot,  John  Gutenberg,  in 
transfiguring  the  printer's  art.  One  of  these  great  inventors 
devised  types  to  be  moved  by  hand;  the  second  superseded 
these  types  by  matrices  moved  by  a  keyboard  fourfold  as 
rapidly. 

To  realize  the  vast  stride  due  to  Ottmar  Mergenthaler, 
let  us  watch  an  old-time  compositor  at  his  wooden  case. 
Before  him  are  150  compartments  or  so,  varying  in  size, 

393 


394          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

each  filled  with  a  particular  letter  of  the  alphabet,  large  or 
small,  a  numeral,  a  punctuation  mark,  or  other  character. 
In  his  left  hand  is  a  "  stick,"  a  flat  metal  receiver  for  his 
type.  Its  length  is  regulated  by  a  central  slide  fastened 
by  a  screw.  As  he  sets  "  America,"  let  us  say,  he  picks  up 
the  letters,  A-m-e-r-i-c-a,  one  after  another.  Next  to  this 
word  he  places  a  printer's  "  space  " ;  this  is  a  thin  piece 
of  metal,  not  so  high  as  type,  so  that,  while  it  separates 
words  from  one  another,  it  receives  no  ink  in  the  printing- 
press.  As  our  compositor  comes  near  the  end  of  his  line, 
he  takes  account  of  a  fact  on  which  turned  the  chief  ob- 
stacle to  setting  type  by  machinery.  His  types  vary  much 
in  breadth :  "  m  "  is  twice  as  wide  as  "  n  " ;  "  w  "  is  twice 
as  wide  as  "  i."  More  than  this.  Every  line  of  type  must 
end  with  a  word,  a  syllable,  a  numeral,  or  a  punctuation 
mark.  Words  vary  much  more  than  letters  in  the  spaces 
they  occupy:  "a"  is  a  word,  and  so  is  "strength,"  with 
eight  letters  in  its  one  syllable.  Suppose  that  a  compositor 
has  room  for  only  two  "  m  "  letters  at  the  end  of  a  line, 
and  that  "  strength  "  is  the  next  word  he  has  to  set.  What 
is  he  to  .do  ?  He  must  space  out  his  words  with  "  quads  " 
until  his  line  is  full,  leaving  "  strength  "  for  his  next  line. 
This  task  of  completing,  or  justifying,  each  line  requires 
judgment  and  skill;  it  consumes  quite  one-sixth  of  a  type- 
setter's day.  Again  and  again  did  inventors  try  in  vain  to 
perform  justification  by  mechanical  means.  They  devised 
types  with  corrugations,  or  with  hollow  spaces,  so  as  to  be 
squeezed  together  at  the  end  of  a  line.  They  adopted 
wedges,  only  to  create  bulges  which  refused  to  subside. 
They  employed  rubber,  only  to  find  it  cause  insufferable  an- 
noyance. How  justification  was  at  last  accomplished  we 
shall  duly  see;  that  feat  it  was  which  loosened  the  grasp 
that  typesetters  had  for  four  centuries  maintained  on  their 
art.  And  what  was  a  typesetter's  pace  when  quick  both  of 
eye  and  touch?  He  could  set  in  an  hour  1,000  "  ems  "  or 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  395 

breadths  of  the  letter  "  m,"  which  serves  as  the  compositor's 
unit:  this  was  equal  to  about  350  words.  But  an  old-time 
compositor  did  more  than  merely  compose.  When  his  col- 
umns or  pages  had  been  duly  printed  from  in  a  press,  he 
had  to  distribute  his  types;  that  is,  he  had  to  return  each 
type  to  its  proper  compartment  in  his  wooden  case,  there  to 
await  the  next  task  of  composition.  To  distribute  types 
demanded  about  one-fourth  as  much  time  as  to  compose. 
An  error  here,  of  course,  led  to  an  error  in  composition,  as 
when  "  u  "  appeared  instead  of  "  n." 

From  this  setter  of  type,  obliged  to  stand  all  day  at  his 
case,  we  pass  to  an  operator  comfortably  seated  at  a  Mer- 
genthaler  linotype.  Before  him  is  spread  a  keyboard  of 
ninety  characters,  much  easier  to  his  touch  than  those  of  a 
typewriter.  Each  key  controls  the  descent  of  a  matrix,  a 
slender  bar  of  metal  in  which  is  sunk  a  character  to  serve 
as  a  mold.  To  set  "  America  "  he  lightly  presses  the  key 
marked  "  A  " ;  it  sets  free  a  matrix  "  A  "  from  its  box  in 
a  large  magazine  of  similar  matrices.  This  "  A,"  in  full 
view,  glides  to  an  assembling  space  which  supplants  the  old- 
fashioned  stick.  Next  the  keys  for  m-e-r-i-c-a  are  lowered, 
so  that  in  a  moment  "  America  "  is  composed.  At  the  end 
of  that  word  and  of  every  other,  the  operator  touches  a 
key  which  inserts  a  spaceband.  How  this  device  serves 
much  better  than  a  space  we  shall  presently  understand.  As 
©ur  operator  approaches  the  end  of  a  line  he  must  exercise 
judgment,  much  as  if  he  were  setting  type  with  his  fingers. 
It  will  not  do  for  him  to  begin  to  compose  "  strength,"  for 
example,  when  only  two  "  em  "  spaces  remain  vacant  before 
him.  At  the  proper  point  he  decides  that  he  has  matrices 
enough  for  a  line,  and  that  instant  he  moves  a  lever  which 
effects  justification;  how  this  marvel  is  wrought  will  be- 
come clear  as  we  proceed.  When  the  line  of  type  is  justi- 
fied, it  is  automatically  carried  to  a  mold  where  liquid  type- 
metal  is  forced  against  the  matrices  and  spacebands,  much 


396 


LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


as  when  types  are  cast  at  a  foundry.     But  instead  of  a  single 
character  as  "  a  "  or  "  o  "  being  cast,  we  have  here  a  line 


MATRIX 


of  words  ready  to  be  printed.     This  "  slug,"  as  it  is  called, 
in  a  moment  is  hard  and  cool  enough  to  pass  to  a  tray, 


LINE  OF  MATRICES,  WITH  JUSTIFIERS  BETWEEN  THE  WORDS 

where  other  slugs  are  swiftly  added,  so  as  to  form  a  page 
or  a  column  for  the  printing  press.  These  slugs  present 
fresh  faces  to  the  printed  paper,  and  may  be  left  standing 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  397 

at  but  nominal  cost  for  interest.  A  set  of  matrices  often 
replaces  a  font  of  type  weighing  two  hundred  times  as 
much. 


A  LINE  o'  TYPE  (SLUG; 

What  about  distribution,  a  task  which  seems  to  ask  for 
uncommon  accuracy  of  touch  and  vision,  with  a  faultless 


DISTRIBUTOR  BAR  AND  MATRICES 


memory?  This  difficult  feat  is  intrusted  to  a  section  of 
the  machine  which  returns  matrices  to  their  boxes  as  quickly 
as  270  per  minute,  and  unerringly,  unless  a  matrix  is  bent 


398 


LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


by  accident,  or  becomes  injured  by  prolonged  use  or  undue 
exposure  to  molten  metal.  This  wonderful  linotype,  there- 
fore, requires  of  an  operator  nothing  beyond  the  touching 


DIAGRAM  OF  THE  MACHINE 

of  keys  through  which  he  produces  a  page  or  a  column  in 
beautiful  new  type,  with  perfect  justification,  and  with  all 
the  drudgery  of  distribution  at  an  end.  Can  Initiative  go 
further  than  this?  Are  not  inventors  right  when  they 
hold  that  every  task  of  the  human  hand,  however  delicate 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER 


399 


and  difficult,  may  be   committed  to  quicker   and   stronger 
fingers  of  steel  and  brass? 

John  Gutenberg,  before  he  invented  movable  types,  was  a 
cutter  of  gems  and  a  framer  of  mirrors.  In  these  handi- 
crafts he  came  to  a  daintiness  of  touch  and  an  exactness 
of  eye  which  prepared  him  to  cut  type-molds  with  strict 
uniformity.  Upon  that  uniformity  turned  his  revolution  of 
the  art  of  typography.  Mergenthaler,  who  was  to  recreate 


Pistot) 


MOLD  WHEEL  AND  MELTING  POT 

the  art  of  Gutenberg,  never  learned  the  compositor's  trade. 
It  was  as  a  watchmaker  that  he  came  to  precision  in  meas- 
urement, to  the  utmost  nicety  in  tempering  a  spring,  or  in 
blending  the  ingredients  of  an  alloy.  As  a  lad  he  was 
trained  to  cut  teeth  and  pinions  with  unfailing  accuracy,  to 
drill  jewels  with  a  steady  and  even  pressure.  He  saw 
that  if  a  watch  is  to  be  accurate,  its  mechanism  must  be 
considered  as  a  whole.  Every  new  addition  must  har- 


400          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

monize  with  all  the  other  parts  to  form  a  unit  which  is  at 
once  refined  and  intricate.  Often  the  chronometers  which 
came  into  his  hands  were  highly  complex  in  their  design. 
Some  of  them,  on  the  release  of  a  detent,  rang  out  the 
hours  and  the  minutes.  Others  exhibited  the  phases  of 
the  moon,  or  every  successive  constellation  of  the  north- 
ern heavens  throughout  a  twelvemonth.  In  those  days  of 
hand-made  watches  there  was  an  instructive  diversity  in 
their  escapement  and  fusees,  their  devices  for  neutralizing 
the  effects  of  varying  temperatures,  all  with  golden  hints 
for  the  fertile  brain  of  young  Mergenthaler.  Wearers  of 
watches  may  wholly  lack  dexterity  or  mechanical  knowledge, 
but  they  can  always  tell  whether  their  time-pieces  are  right 
or  wrong.  And  a  watchmaker  thrives  only  as  he  skilfully 
serves  these  unrelenting  critics.  Let  us  remember,  too,  that 
Germany  is  dotted  with  tower-clocks  of  rare  ingenuity. 
Often  they  chime  elaborate  tunes  as  the  hours  succeed  each 
other.  At  Strasburg  the  great  clock  of  the  cathedral  in  its 
elaborate  mechanism  surpasses  every  other  time-piece  in 
Europe.  A  globe  displays  the  courses  of  the  stars,  and 
above  this  appears  the  path  of  the  moon.  As  noon  ap- 
proaches, an  angel  strikes  ttye  quarters  on  a  bell  in  his 
hand;  higher  up,  a  skeleton,  representing  Time,  strikes 
twelve.  Surrounding  figures  strike  the  other  quarters, 
showing  the  progress  of  a  man  through  boyhood,  youth, 
manhood,  and  old  age.  Under  the  first  gallery,  the  symbolic 
deity  of  the  day  steps  forth, — Apollo  on  Sunday,  Diana  on 
Monday,  and  so  on.  In  the  uppermost  niche  the  twelve 
apostles  move  around  a  figure  of  the  Redeemer,  bowing 
in  homage  as  they  pass.  On  a  pinnacle  is  perched  a  cock, 
which  flaps  its  wings,  stretches  its  neck,  and  crows,  awaken- 
ing echoes  from  the  remotest  arches  of  the  cathedral. 
Schwilgue,  who  built  this  clock,  Vaucanson,  who  con- 
structed automata  of  ingenuity  quite  as  marvelous,  con- 
tributed not  a  little  to  the  advancement  of  invention.  They 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  401 

endowed  cams  with  new  forms  adapted  to  wholly  new 
tasks.  They  took,  of  necessity,  noteworthy  strides  in  the 
art  of  timing,  an  art  which  to-day  plays  a  leading  part  in 
engines,  looms,  and  much  other  machinery,  and  notably  in 
the  linotype. 

Germany,  the  fatherland  of  John  Gutenberg,  gave  Ottmar 
Mergenthaler  to  the  world.  He  was  born  on  May  10,  1854, 
in  Bietigheim,  a  quaint  and  picturesque  town  of  four  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  about  twenty  miles  north  of  Stuttgart. 
His  father,  John  George  Mergenthaler,  was  a  teacher;  his 
mother,  Rosina  Ackerman,  came  of  a  family  which  for 
generations  had  been  of  the  teaching  guild.  Ottmar,  the 
third  of  their  five  children,  was  instructed  at  his  father's 
school,  where,  happily,  his  lessons  included  music,  to  give 
him  cheer  and  solace  as  long  as  he  lived.  At  home  he  did 
not  eat  the  bread  of  idleness.  He  helped  to  cook  meals, 
wash  dishes,  build  fires  in  winter,  and  till  the  garden  in  the 
summer ;  one  of  his  tasks  the  year  round  was  to  feed  the 
pigs  and  cattle,  which  contributed  to  the  family  larder. 
"  It  was  all  work  and  no  play,"  wrote  the  inventor  many 
years  afterward,  "  yet  the  boy  submitted  willingly  to  al- 
most any  imposition,  for  he  had  been  accustomed  to  it 
from  childhood  and  knew  no  better."  He  continues : 


"  In  this  way  time  elapsed  until  he  arrived  at  fourteen, 
when  he  was  to  leave  school  to  receive  his  training  as  a 
teacher.  As  the  time  drew  near  he  gave  much  thought  to 
the  subject  of  his  future  and  the  profession  his  parents  had 
chosen  for  him.  '  Would  I  like  to  be  a  teacher  ? '  he  asked 
himself.  '  No,'  was  his  answer ;  '  why  should  I  ?  '  In  his 
father's  case  he  had  seen  nothing  but  a  very  small  salary 
with  no  prospect  whatever  of  further  advancement.  He 
had  seen  his  father  subjected  to  many  vexations  on  the  part 
of  the  State  Inspectors  of  schools.  The  boy  became  clear 
in  his  mind  that  he  did  not  want  to  be  a  teacher,  but  what 
calling  should  he  choose?  His  father  diligently  inquired 
as  to  the  chances  of  success  offered  by  the  various  higher 


402          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

trades,  as  also  did  the  parson  of  the  village,  who  took  a 
warm  interest  in  what  he  considered  a  very  promising  boy. 
But  the  responses  were  not  encouraging.  The  cabinet- 
maker thought  his  business  ruined  by  the  competition  of  the 
big  factories,  but  said  that  the  carpenter  still  made  a  fair 
living.  The  carpenter,  in  his  turn,  took  a  gloomy  view 
of  his  trade,  and  thought  that  the  locksmith  and  gunsmith 
had  the  best  outlook ;  these,  when  questioned,  believed  the 
machinist  to  be  the  man  of  the  future,  and  so  throughout 
the  circle,  until  the  boy  and  his  friends  concluded  that  they 
must  choose  among  evils,  and  that  the  path  to  be  taken  was 
that  for  which  the  lad  had  the  best  talent.  He  had  for 
years  successfully  handled  the  rather  rebellious  village 
clock,  he  had  kept  several  other  clocks  in  repair,  he  had  cut 
many  models  of  animals  out  of  wood  with  his  penknife,  and 
a  general  handiness  with  tools  gave  him  an  idea  that  ma- 
chinery was  what  attracted  him  most.  His  special  desire 
was  to  become  a  maker  of  mathematical  instruments,  but  the 
cost  of  an  apprenticeship  to  that  trade  was  beyond  his 
father's  purse,  and,  besides,  his  education  was  deficient.  A 
college  course,  he  was  told,  was  needed  by  anybody  who 
aspired  to  be  more  than  a  mere  workman.  At  last  the  boy 
compromised  between  what  he  wanted  and  what  he  could 
get,  by  becoming  an  apprentice  to  the  brother  of  his  step- 
mother, a  maker  of  watches  and  clocks  in  Bietigheim.  He 
was  to  serve  four  years  without  wages,  pay  a  small  premium, 
furnish  all  his  own  tools,  and  receive  board  and  lodging 
from  this  uncle,  Mr.  Hahl. 

"  In  May,  1868,  he  began  work,  and  soon  found  himself 
at  home  in  his  new  surroundings.  A  pleasant  and  kindly 
spirit  pervaded  the  home  of  the  Hahls,  and  while  the  hours 
of  labor  were  long,  they  gave  opportunity  for  advancement 
in  learning  and  for  recreation.  Hahl  usually  employed  six 
or  eight  young  men,  some  as  apprentices,  others  as  journey- 
men. In  their  cheery  company  work  was  a  pleasure,  and 
four  years  passed  swiftly  and  gainfully.  Young  Mergen- 
thaler  applied  himself  to  mastering  the  intricacies  of  his 
trade,  with  energy  and  enthusiasm.  With  a  rare  mechan- 
ical talent  he  combined  skill,  which  brought  him  to  profi- 
ciency in  every  branch  of  the  business  almost  without  in- 
struction, and  with  a  minimum  of  opportunity  for  practice. 
So  well  did  he  succeed  that  his  uncle  felt  constrained  to 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  403 

pay  him  his  wages  for  a  year  before  his>  apprenticeship  ex- 
pired. For  this  liberality  Hahl  had  never  had  occasion  but 
this  once  in  a  business  career  of  more  than  thirty  years. 

"  Meanwhile  the  young  man  tried  to  advance  himself  by 
taking  advantage  of  the  neighboring  night-schools  and  Sun- 
day-schools, conducted  for  the  special  benefit  of  young  men 
learning  a  trade  or  business.  Here  he  received  his  first 
start  in  mechanical  drawing,  which  later  on  assisted  him  so 
much,  particularly  in  the  drafting  of  his  inventions  and 
designs,  an  advantage  over  many  other  inventors  which  can 
hardly  be  overrated.  In  the  summer  of  1872,  his  ap- 
prenticeship having  expired,  the  young  man  commenced  to 
look  around  for  an  opportunity  to  turn  his  acquirements  to 
better  account  than  was  possible  in  the  small  town  where 
he  had  learned  his  trade.  The  Franco-German  war  had 
closed  shortly  before  this  period,  and  the  vast  army  of  Ger- 
many had  returned  home  and  been  disbanded.  The  work- 
men thus  set  free  poured  into  every  avenue  of  business, 
and  in  most  cases,  as  a  mark  of  sympathy  and  as  a  just 
reward,  they  displaced  men  who  had  not  gone  to  the  front 
in  the  service  of  the  Fatherland.  To  make  matters  worse, 
there  were  no  longer  any  large  army  contracts  to  maintain 
the  activity  of  nearly  every  field  of  manufacture.  Every- 
thing industrial  was  being  readjusted,  and  heightened  taxes, 
increased  military  duties,  and  decreased  opportunities  for 
wage-earners,  created  widespread  dissatisfaction,  especially 
in  Southern  Germany,  where  the  people  seriously  objected 
to  the  yoke  of  Prussian  militarism.  Thousands  of  young 
men  left  their  homes  to  avoid  military  service,  and  young 
Mergenthaler  was  caught  in  the  general  discontent,  and  con- 
cluded to  emigrate,  if  possible.  Already  his  two  elder 
brothers  had  been  drafted  into  the  army,  and  it  was  high 
time  for  him  to  act  if  he  was  to  get  away  at  all.  In  this 
dilemma  he  applied  for  aid  to  August  Hahl,  a  son  of  his 
uncle  and  employer,  who  was  established  as  a  maker  of 
electrical  instruments  in  the  city  of  Washington,  asking 
for  the  loan  of  passage  money,  to  be  worked  out  when  he 
reached  the  factory.  The  cash  was  promptly  forwarded, 
and  young  Mergenthaler,  when  he  landed  in  Baltimore  in 
October,  1872,  at  once  proceeded  to  the  Hahl  shop  in  Wash- 
ington. 

"  He  began  work  forthwith  at  fair  wages.     Electrical  in- 


404          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

struments  were  new  to  him,  but  soon  he  was  as  efficient  as 
any  of  his  fellow-workmen;  and  within  two  years  he  took 
the  leading  place  in  the  shop,  acting  as  foreman,  and  when- 
ever Mr.  Hahl  was  absent,  as  business  manager.  Besides 
the  manufacture  of  electrical  clocks  and  bells,  his  tasks  were 
chiefly  in  executing  instruments  for  the  United  States 
Signal  Service.  This  Service  had  been  but  recently  estab- 
lished, and  several  of  its  officers  were  then  devising  its 
heliographs,  gages  for  rain  and  snow,  registers  for  wind 
velocities,  and  the  like.  Nearly  all  experimental  work,  and 
many  of  the  standard  instruments,  as  finally  adopted,  were 
carried  out  at  the  Hahl  shop,  usually  by  Mergenthaler.  It 
was  work  that  he  liked,  and  for  which  he  developed  a  par- 
ticular aptitude,  both  in  skill  and  ease  of  execution.  He 
readily  grasped  an  inventor's  ideas,  and  improved  upon 
them  where  he  perceived  that  improvement  was  possible. 
Washington  was  at  that  time  the  focus  for  important  inven- 
tions, originated  not  only  in  the  United  States,  but  through- 
out the  world.  The  law  then  required  that  a  model  should 
accompany  every  application  for  a  patent,  and  as  these 
models  were,  as  a  rule,  built  in  Washington,  many  model- 
makers  in  that  city  were  kept  busy  the  year  round.  Mer- 
genthaler thus  came  into  daily  contact  with  inventors  from 
far  and  near,  and  inventions  furnished  the  staple  of  his 
thought  and  conversation.  In  such  surroundings  the  young 
man  could  hardly  fail  to  unfold  his  own  inventive  talent,  and 
long  before  he  was  of  age  he  left  the  impress  of  his  in- 
genuity on  many  a  machine  and  instrument. 

"  In  the  autumn  of  1873  occurred  the  memorable  financial 
panic  ushered  in  by  the  bankruptcy  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Com- 
pany. Business  in  Washington  fell  into  utter  stagnation, 
involving  the  Hahl  shop  with  every  other  in  the  city.  Its 
employees  shrank  in  number  until  a  mere  remnant  re- 
mained, which,  fortunately,  included  Mergenthaler.  Hahl 
attributed  the  shrinkage  of  his  business  solely  to  Washing- 
ton as  a  place,  deeming  that  Baltimore  would  afford  him  a 
much  larger  circle  of  customers.  Against  Mergenthaler's 
advice,  to  Baltimore  the  Hahl  shop  was  removed,  but  the 
expected  improvement  in  business  failed  to  appear.  For 
a  little  while  the  shop  was  busy  in  providing  signal  instru- 
ments, to  be  used  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  in  Phila- 
delphia. When  these  were  finished,  there  was  almost 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  405 

nothing  to  do.     Hahl  was  in  a  sorry  plight,  in  debt  as  he 
was  to  his  hands  for  hundreds  of  dollars  in  wages." 

At  this  point  of  depression  in  the  fortunes  of  young  Mer- 
genthaler  let  us  interrupt  his  story  as  we  listen  to  a 
warm  personal  friend  of  his,  Henry  Thomas,  now  of  Balti- 
more :  "  Those  formative  years  in  Washington,  Mergen- 
thaler  was  wont  to  regard  as  the  happiest  of  his  life.  He 
was  one  of  a  coterie  of  young  Germans  who  lived  together, 
sang  together,  and  often  took  long  walks  together.  Early 
on  Sundays  we  were  wont  to  stroll  to  Great  Falls  or  Chain 
Bridge,  halting  at  the  farmhouse  of  a  German  friend.  At 
his  hospitable  board  we  refreshed  ourselves  with  clabber, 
potatoes  in  uniform,  black  bread,  and  beer  in  moderation. 
Ottmar,  reserved  and  almost  silent  with  strangers,  always 
let  himself  go  in  our  company.  He  was  a  generous  com- 
rade, complying  and  kind,  no  spoil-sport.  His  voice,  a  fine 
barytone,  was  often  heard  in  a  repertory  of  German  songs 
and  ballads.  In  those  days  his  health  was  vigorous  and  his 
step  elastic.  He  gave  promise  of  being  hale  and  hearty  at 
fourscore.  We  were  all  ambitious,  but  he  brought  it 
farther  than  any  one  of  us  all." 

To  resume  Mergenthaler's  own  story : 

"  One  day  early  in  August,  1876,  we  find  Hahl  at  his  of- 
fice, 13  Mercer  Street,  Baltimore,  in  conversation  with  Mr. 
Charles  T.  Moore,  of  White  Sulphur  Springs,  Virginia. 
Mr.  Moore  was  the  inventor  of  what  he  called  a  '  writing 
machine/  Its  failure  he  attributed  to  defective  workman- 
ship. As  his  financial  sponsors  he  named  James  O.  Cle- 
phane,  Louis  Clephane,  Maurice  Pechin,  and  J.  H.  Cross- 
man,  all  of  Washington.  Hahl  the  next  day  went  to  Wash- 
ington to  secure,  if  possible,  the  task  of  reconstructing  this 
machine.  He  found  the  backers  of  Mr.  Moore  discour- 
aged and  unwilling  to  advance  any  more  cash  unless  a 
satisfactory  result  was  guaranteed.  '  No  result,  no 
money,'  was  their  verdict.  Mergenthaler  in  the  meantime 
had  thoroughly  examined  the  machine,  and  found  that, 


406          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

while  its  workmanship  was  faulty,  yet  this  was  less  a 
cause  of  failure  than  errors  of  design.  He  gave  the 
project  serious  thought,  and,  after  a  few  days,  saw  his  way 
clear  to  remodeling  the  machine  so  as  to  overcome  some 
of  its  defects  and  at  the  same  time  simplify  it  greatly.  He 
so  informed  Hahl,  and  advised  him  to  undertake  the  re- 
construction at  his  own  risk,  as  the  result,  in  his  opinion, 
was  beyond  doubt,  provided  that  he  should  be  free  to  make 
such  changes  as  he  pleased,  and  that  the  compensation 
should  be  just.  This  suggestion  went  into  effect,  Hahl  guar- 
anteeing that  a  reconstructed  machine  should  make  its  let- 
ters, including  the  widest  and  narrowest,  print  clear  and 
sharp  on  a  page,  each  letter  duly  spaced,  so  as  to  produce 
the  effect  of  printing  from  regular  type.  In  case  of  suc- 
cess, $1,600  was  to  be  received  by  Hahl;  in  the  event  of 
failure,  he  was  to  be  paid  nothing." 

On  these  terms  the  machine  was  taken  in  hand.  In  its 
original  form  it  bore  upon  the  successive  circles  of  a  cylin- 
der the  characters  to  be  printed.  By  manipulating  keys 
while  this  cylinder  revolved,  its  characters  were  printed  in 
lithographic  ink  on  a  paper  strip.  This  strip  was  then  cut 
into  lengths  of  a  line  each,  justified  by  the  due  separation 
of  words  and  syllables,  and  then  transferred  to  a  litho- 
graphic stone  for  printing.* 

Crude  though  this  machine  was,  in  Washington,  Chi- 
cago, and  New  York  it  had  printed  copies  of  legislative 
proceedings,  court  testimony,  and  other  documents.  When 
Hahl  handed  this  apparatus  to  Mergenthaler  to  be  over- 
hauled and  improved,  in  that  simple  act  he  gave  the  in- 
ventor his  first  impulse  toward  supplanting  the  ancient  art 
of  typesetting,  and  ushered  in  the  dawn  of  a  new  and 

*Had  Moore  used  lithographic  ink  directly  on  a  typewriter,  he 
would  have  easily  won  success,  always  barring  the  task  of  justifica- 
tion, with  which  indeed  he  might  have  dispensed,  as  in  all  the  type- 
writers of  to-day.  At  present  a  stencil  plate,  readily  cut  in  wax  on 
a  standard  typewriter,  enables  an  operator  to  print  with  ink  2,000  or 
more  impressions  from  an  ordinary  typewritten  sheet. 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER 


407 


memorable    era.     A    model,    incorporating    Mergenthalers 
improvements,   performed  all   that  was   desired.     He   was 


1 

2  ~ 

the  war?|    A.    Near|la  thousand!!  acres.     I 

J 

nwnpH  H  a  l|  myself  J                        P 

4   ~ 

—  p-0.  How     '    "  ^ 

jp                            ^^ 

s- 

c 

C 

A  TRANSFER  SHEET 
Charles  T.  Moore.     Patented  March  19,  1878. 

then  commissioned  to  build  a  machine  of  full  size;  this  he 
finished  during  the  summer  of   1877.     An  ordinary  stock 


408          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

ticker  of  to-day  has  one  wheel  for  letters,  another  for  figures. 
Mergenthaler  paralleled  this  feature :  his  keys  in  their  usual 
descent  struck  Roman  characters;  a  shift-key,. like  that  of 
a  typewriter,  caused  italics  to  appear.  From  both  wheels 
the  type  imprinted  itself  sharply :  but  this,  after  all,  was 
only  a  threshold  achievement.  When  reproduction  was  at- 
tempted, there  was  disappointment.  The  stone  here  and 
there  refused  to  absorb  the  finer  lines  of  the  imposed  script. 
Too  much  or  too  little  ink  might  be  delivered  from  the 
printing-press,  so  that  blotches  presented  themselves  along- 
side spaces  utterly  bare.  Not  seldom  the  paper  became 
stained  with  oil  as  it  ran  past  the  printing  cylinder.  Worst 
of  all:  the  inevitable  slowness  of  lithographic  printing 
wholly  forbade  success.  In  truth,  the  scheme  was  puerile, 
and  no  inventor,  however  resourceful,  could  make  anything 
of  it. 

James  O.  Clephane,  who  had  originally  suggested  this 
machine  to  Moore,  saw  at  last  that  the  difficulties  of  lithog- 
raphy were  insurmountable.  He  proposed  that  stereotypy 
be  resorted  to  instead.  The  typewriter,  in  which  he  felt  a 
keen  interest  both  as  an  inventor  and  a  promoter,  had  re- 
cently demonstrated  its  success;  he  proposed  that  a  type- 
writer should  impress  its  characters  on  a  strip  of  papier 
mache,  from  which,  as  a  matrix,  a  stereotype  should  be 
produced.  Mergenthaler  up  to  this  time  had  never  seen  a 
stereotype,  and  knew  nothing  of  its  manufacture.  A  sur- 
vey of  the  process  in  a  printing  office  nearby  made  him 
skeptical  as  to  Clephane's  plan,  so  he  said :  "  Don't  hold  me 
responsible  for  results."  Clephane  responded :  "  Give  me 
an  impression  machine  and  I  will  attend  to  the  rest."  By 
the  end  of  1878  Mergenthaler  built  for  Clephane  a  machine 
which  clearly  impressed  on  papier  mache  letters  and  words 
duly  spaced.  But  joy  at  the  neatness  of  this  work  gave 
place  to  dejection  when  this  matrix,  forty  lines  in  length, 
was  covered  with  molten  type  metal.  This  metal  penetrated 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  409 

every  joint,  crack,  and  pore  of  the  papier  mache  so  thor- 
oughly that  to  separate  mold  and  metal  was  hardly  feasible. 
Amid  many  failures,  good  castings  occasionally  appeared. 
These  were  diligently  cleared  of  burrs.  The  paper  clinging 
to  their  surfaces  was  removed  by  pens,  brushes,  and  acids. 
Hours  might  be  spent  in  making  presentable  a  single  page. 
And  there  was  usually  a  provoking  displacement  of  material 
toward  the  right  side  of  each  character.  Another  beset- 
ment  arose  from  having  to  keep  the  paper  wet  during  print- 
ing. Mergenthaler  patiently  overcame  these  obstacles  one 
by  one,  and  brought  the  process  to  a  point  where  success 
seemed  near.  But  success  was  never  close  enough  to  be 
grasped.  Many  inventors  have  essayed  this  task  of  design- 
ing an  impression  machine,  only  to  waste  their  time  as 
Mergenthaler  did.  He  finally  became  convinced  that  this 
phase  of  stereotypy  was  impracticable,  and  told  his  em- 
ployers so.  Their  hopes,  nevertheless,  were  unquenchable. 
For  five  years  thereafter  they  kept  on  stereotyping  in  a 
shop  of  their  own  in  Washington,  only  to  reach  at  last  the 
conclusion  that  their  endeavor  was  wholly  futile. 

As  Clephane  and  his  friends  discussed  their  experiments, 
they  felt  that,  while  they  had  followed  a  wrong  track,  their 
aim  was  well  worthy  of  renewed  pursuit.  And  who  was 
more  competent  for  that  pursuit  than  the  young  Baltimore 
machinist?  Accordingly  in  January,  1883,  they  engaged 
him  to  take  up  as  a  whole  the  problem  of  devising  a  machine 
to  supersede  typesetting.  As  Mergenthaler  reconsidered 
the  subject,  he  was  certain  that  he  must  exclude  the  annoy- 
ances of  the  papier  mache  method  as  at  first  adopted.  To 
avoid  the  bulges  which  arose  as  one  letter  after  another  was 
impressed  upon  its  surface,  he  planned  to  imprint  a  matrix 
LINE  BY  LINE,  each  line  being  justified  as  a  unit.  This 
project  he  had  outlined  in  a  drawing  toward  the  close  of 
1879.  Just  then  his  treasury  was  absolutely  empty,  and  in 
a  fit  of  rage  he  had  torn  his  sketch  into  ribbons.  There 


410          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

was  now  the  prospect  of  funds  adequate  to  the  experiments 
proposed.  Clephane  had  at  this  time  interested  in  his 
plans  Lemon  G.  Hine,  a  leading  lawyer  of  Washington, 
one  of  the  commissioners  who  ruled  the  city,  a  man  of  abil- 
ity and  character,  and  withal  a  born  diplomatist.  He 
brought  not  only  capital  to  the  enterprise,  but  energy  and 
dash.  The  associates  now  opened  a  printing  office  in  com- 
modious quarters  at  Seventh  Street  and  Louisiana  Avenue, 
where  soon  they  had  seven  rotary  machines  at  work.  New 
paging  and  other  auxiliaries  were  installed,  and  the  staff  of 
operators  was  considerably  augmented.  Everything  pos- 
sible to  insure  success  seemed  to  be  present,  and  yet  the 
only  issue  was  failure. 

For  a  moment  let  us  return  to  the  personal  annals  of  Mer- 
genthaler  in  Baltimore.  In  1881  he  married  Emma  Lachen- 
mayer,  to  which  union  four  sons  and  a  daughter  were  born. 
On  New  Year's  Day,  1883,  he  dissolved  a  partnership  with 
Hahl  which  had  existed  for  two  years,  and  began  business 
for  himself  in  Bank  Lane.  There  he  immediately  took  in 
hand  the  revised  plans  of  his  friends  in  Washington.  Hine, 
who  assumed  all  outlays,  requested  Mergenthaler  to  pro- 
ceed at  once  with  his  improved  design:  he  began  forthwith 
to  construct  an  experimental  model  which  should  print 
twelve  letters  at  a  time.  It  was  built  in  a  hurry  and  creaked 
with  defects;  yet  it  demonstrated  a  principle  distinctly 
superior  to  that  of  the  preceding  machine.  This  new  de- 
sign, expanded  to  a  working  scale,  was  tested  in  the  fall  of 
1883,  with  an  encouraging  measure  of  success.  A  per- 
sistent difficulty  lay  in  the  task  of  drying  the -matrix.  In 
ordinary  stereotypy  the  matrix  is  dried  while  still  on  the 
type.  Mergenthaler  had  to  strip  off  his  matrix  while  wet, 
and  dry  it  afterward,  because  production  was  too  rapid  to 
allow  a  matrix  to  remain  long  enough  on  the  type  to  have 
its  moisture  driven  off  by  heat.  This  impediment  brought 
our  inventor  to  a  decisive  turning-point.  He  now  plainly 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  411 

saw  that  papier  mache  was  unsuitable  for  his  work,  and 
must  be  discarded.  He  took  a  leaf  out  of  the  practice  of 
typefounders,  and  proceeded  to  cast  from  his  matrices  in 
fluid  type  metal.  The  experience  of  four  centuries  had 
shown  that  molten  type  metal  thus  cast  solidifies  almost  in- 
stantly, without  adhering  to  its  mold.  In  this  returning 
step  he  dismissed  for  good  and  all  the  trouble  with  protrud- 
ing papier  mache,  and  the  necessity  for  driving  off  moisture 
from  a  mixture  of  water  and  pulp. 

But  even  with  his  new  resource  of  casting  from  metal, 
the  inventor's  path  was  still  thorny.  As  his  plans  first  crys- 
tallized in  his  mind,  he  required  as  an  outfit  no  fewer  than 
4,500  matrices,  such  as  then  cost  two  dollars  each.  And 
where  was  he  to  find  $9,000  for  their  purchase  ?  For  weeks 
this  perplexed  his  brain.  While  regarding  this  difficulty 
from  every  point  of  view,  he  was  called  to  Washington  to 
consult  Clephane  and  Hine.  On  board  the  train  there 
flashed  across  his  mind:  Why  have  separate  matrices  at 
all ;  why  not  stamp  matrices  into  typebars  and  cast  metal 
into  them  in  one  and  the  same  machine  ?  Here  was  his  first 
unification  of  composing  and  casting,  an  idea  which  glowed 
more  and  more  brightly  with  promise  as  he  dwelt  upon  it. 
He  felt  sure  that  type  metal  would  solidify  fast  enough  to 
permit  a  quick  working  of  the  mechanism  he  now  imagined. 
He  was  certain  that  good  and  cheap  matrices  could  be 
punched  into  type  metal,  and  each  line  readily  justified  by 
springs.  On  reaching  Washington,  Mergenthaler  sought  to 
persuade  his  friends  to  adopt  his  new  and  audacious  plan. 
They  were  at  first  reluctant.  Why  had  an  idea  so  obvious 
not  been  carried  out  long  before?  At  last  they  yielded  to 
the  inventor's  arguments,  and  bade  him  embody  his  novel 
design  in  two  machines. 

These  bar-indenting  machines  carried  a  series  of  metal 
bars,  bearing  upon  their  edges  printing  characters  in  relief, 
the  bars  being  provided  with  springs  for  justification.  The 


412          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

papier  mache  matrix  lines  resulting  from  pressure  against 
the  characters  were  secured  upon  a  backing  sheet,  over 
which  was  laid  a  gridiron  frame  containing  a  series  of  slots, 
into  which  type  metal  was  poured  by  hand  to  form  slugs 
bearing  the  characters  from  which  to  print.  These  ma- 
chines were  promptly  succeeded  by  a  machine  which  cast  its 
slugs  automatically  from  the  matrix  sheets,  one  line  at  a 
time.  As  these  machines  followed  one  another,  their 
creator  rose  to  new  heights  of  skill  and  outlook.  He  was 
soon  designing  a  band  machine  which  distinctly  surpassed 
its  predecessors.  In  this  model  the  characters  required  for 
printing  were  indented  in  the  edges  of  a  series  of  narrow 
brass  bands,  each  band  containing  a  full  alphabet,  and  hang- 
ing with  its  spacers,  side  by  side  with  other  bands  in  the 
machine.  Each  band  tapered  in  thickness  from  top  to  bot- 
tom. By  touching  a  keyboard  the  bands  dropped  suc- 
cessively, bringing  the  characters  required  into  line  at  a 
desired  point.  A  casting  mechanism  was  then  brought 
into  contact  with  this  line  of  characters,  and  molten  metal 
was  forced  through  a  mold  of  proper  dimensions,  forming  a 
slug  with  a  perfect  printing  surface. 

The  first  of  these  machines,  whose  creation  opened  a  new 
chapter  in  the  mechanism  of  typography,  was  ready  to  be 
tested  early  in  January,  1884,  and  a  day  was  appointed  when 
a  few  friends  might  behold  the  linotype  at  work.  A  dozen 
spectators  were  numerous  enough  to  fill  the  little  shop  in 
Bank  Lane.  They  came  half  an  hour  too  soon,  so  that  the 
inventor,  in  their  presence,  deftly  gave  his  cams  and  molds 
their  finishing  touches.  At  last  all  was  completed,  and  Ott- 
mar  Mergenthaler  stood  before  his  keyboard  as  calm  and 
collected  as  at  any  time  for  eight  years  past.  He  com- 
posed a  line  on  the  keys,  then  turned  the  driving  pulley  by 
hand,  observing  closely  every  pulse  of  the  mechanism  until 
it  had  finished  a  cycle  and  come  to  a  full  stop.  All  moved 
easily  and  with  precision.  The  inventor  now  asked  that 


LINOTYPE.     FIRST  BAND  MACHINE  OF  1883 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  413 

steam  power  be  connected.  This  was  done.  He  composed 
a  second  line,  removed  the  stopper  from  the  metal  pump, 
and  touched  the  line  key.  Smoothly  and  silently  the  matrices 
slid  into  their  places,  were  clamped  and  aligned,  and  the 
pump  discharged  its  fused  metal.  A  finished  LINOTYPE, 
shining  like  silver,  dropped  from  the  machine,  the  while 
that  each  matrix,  its  duty  performed,  now  took  its  way 
through  the  distributing  mechanism  to  its  own  receptacle. 
All  was  accomplished  in  fifteen  seconds.  A  scene  as  worthy 
of  monumental  commemoration  as  the  first  pulling  of  a 
proof  from  movable  types  by  John  Gutenberg.  A  few  addi- 
tional lines  followed  at  the  swift  touch  of  Mergenthaler, 
who  then  invited  Miss  Julia  Camp,  an  expert  and  rapid 
typewriter,  to  take  his  place  at  the  keys.  Miss  Camp  had 
for  years  produced  better  results  than  any  other  operator 
with  the  lithographic  and  indenting  machines.  To-day  her 
work  at  the  keyboard  of  the  linotype  was  as  convincing  as 
that  of  the  inventor  himself. 

How  did  the  mechanism  execute  the  difficult  task  of 
justification?  The  operator,  with  the  aid  of  a  scale  and 
pointer,  could  see  the  length  of  his  line  as  it  grew  before 
him.  At  the  proper  moment  near  the  end  of  a  line,  he  duly 
enlarged  the  spaces  betwixt  words  by  striking  a  space-key 
until  his  pointer  showed  the  line  to  be  quite  full.  It  was 
soon  decided  to  substitute  graduated  wedges  for  this  plan. 
These  wedges  Mergenthaler  had  borne  in  view  for  his  first 
band  machine  of  1883,  but  their  high  cost  had  warned  him 
off.  In  those  days  of  small  things,  $400  was  as  much  as 
he  dared  expect  a  printer  to  pay  for  a  composing  machine, 
and  a  price  so  low  excluded  automatic  justification. 

At  this  period  in  the  history  of  linotypy,  the  parties 
financially  interested  organized  themselves  as  "  The  Na- 
tional Typographic  Company  of  West  Virginia."  They 
established  a  shop  at  201  Camden  Street,  Baltimore,  of 
which  Mergenthaler  was  given  charge.  From  Bank  Lane 


LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


he  brought  his  tools  and  machinery,  to  which  the  Company 
added  with  liberality.  A  contract  was  now  signed  by  the 
Company,  Mergenthaler  agreeing  that  all  his  inventions, 
past  and  future,  should  become  the  property  of  the  Com- 
pany. On  his  producing  a  practical  machine  he  was  to  re- 
ceive as  royalty  ten  per  cent,  on  the  cost  of  all  machines 
manufactured,  and  a  thousand  shares  of  the  Company's 
stock.  Now  followed  two  years,  during  which,  day  by  day, 
the  inventor  improved  and  simplified  his  linotype,  always 


MERGENTHALER'S  GRADUATED -WEDGE  JUSTIFIER 
Patented  August  u,  1896. 

finding  his  directors  patient  and  cordial  in  their  support 
as  he  abandoned  good  designs  for  better.  Besides  his 
amazing  faculty  as  an  inventor,  Mergenthaler  had  the  per- 
sonality which  makes  an  employer  beloved  by  his  hands. 
His  men  were  proud  and  fond  of  him.  They  rendered  him 
ungrudging  service ;  their  good  will  did  much  to  cushion  the 
jolts  of  experimental  work  with  its  inevitable  hitches,  its 
constant  balking  of  the  best  laid  plans.  One  of  his  staff  at 


LINOTYPE.     FIRST  DIRECT  CASTING  BAND  MACHINE  OF  1884 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  415 

that  time  was  William  R.  Brack,  now  of  New  York,  who 
declares :  "  Ottmar  Mergenthaler  was  the  '  whitest '  man 
one  could  work  for.  He  was  good  to  his  employees,  and 
no  matter  how  humble  their  station,  he  had  always  a  kind 
word  for  them,  and  a  friendly  word  to  say  of  them.  His 
goodness  of  heart. included  dumb  animals,  horses  especially, 
and  he  would  not  permit  them  to  be  ill-treated.  One  even- 
ing I  was  returning  home  from  the  linotype  factory,  and  I 
rode  in  the  horsecar  with  him.  At  an  unpaved  crossing  the 
driver  lost  his  temper  and  began  to  whip  his  horses  un- 
mercifully. Mergenthaler  sprang  to  their  rescue,  and  gave 
the  driver  such  a  reprimand  as  he  never  heard  before.  It 
had  the  desired  effect,  too.  That  man  never  abused  his 
horses  again." 

Says  Charles  R.  Wagner,  of  New  York,  another  machin- 
ist, who  helped  to  build  the  first  linotypes :  "  There  never 
was  an  employer  better  liked  than  Mergenthaler.  When 
rush  orders  obliged  all  hands  to  work  overtime,  he  would 
walk  through  the  shop  and  ask  us  if  we  had  dined.  If  we 
answered  no,  he  would  order  dinner  from  a  neighboring 
restaurant  to  be  brought  in  at  once.  When  Mr.  Hine  re- 
signed as  president  of  the  Company,  Mergenthaler  gave  all 
hands  a  capital  supper  at  the  shop.  That  night  he  made  a 
telling  speech.  When  he  parted  from  the  Linotype  Com- 
pany, he  bought  the  old  Walker  Horseshoe  Works  at  Lo- 
cust Point,  Baltimore,  where  he  intended  to  form  a  com- 
munity of  his  work  people.  At  this  factory  he  built  300 
linotypes  under  contract  with  the  Linotype  Company.  After 
these  machines  were  finished,  he  confined  his  work,  so  far  as 
linotypes  were  concerned,  simply  to  repairs.  But  he  was 
an  inventor  through  and  through,  so  he  had  to  devise  a 
threshing  machine,  and  improve  a  basket-making  machine, 
and  contrive  much  else  equally  ingenious  and  original.  The 
recreation  he  enjoyed  most  was  singing.  For  years  he  was 
an  active  member  of  the  Liederkranz  of  Baltimore,  and  be- 


416          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

came  its  president.  Apart  from  music,  he  was  a  man  to 
stay  at  home.  When  he  traveled  in  America  or  Europe,  he 
took  his  family  with  him.  At  home  or  abroad,  his  friends 
were  friends  for  life." 

Thanks,  in  no  small  degree,  to  the  capacity  and  good  will 
of  his  staff,  Mergenthaler,  in  February,  1885,  completed  a 
much  improved  linotype,  with  an  automatic  justifier.  This, 
in  the  same  month,  he  exhibited  at  the  Chamberlain  Hotel 
in  Washington,  attracting  the  attention  of  printers  from  all 
parts  of  the  world,  as  well  as  of  President  Arthur  and  other 
national  leaders.  A  banquet  was  given  in  honor  of  the  in- 
ventor to  mark  his  great  achievement.  He  delivered  a 
capital  speech,  in  which  he  reviewed  the  principal  steps  of 
his  invention,  with  a  forecast  of  its  coming  success,  since 
more  than  fulfilled. 

While  this  latest  linotype  -was  much  more  effective  and 
smooth  in  working  than  its  immediate  forerunners,  its  in- 
ventor soon  divined  how  he  could  make  a  much  better  ma- 
chine. His  matrix  bands  were  not  precise  in  their  dimen- 
sions, and  if  an  operator  fell  into  a  single  error,  all  that 
preceded  that  error  'on  a  line  had  to  be  thrown  away.  An- 
other fault  was  more  serious:  as  the  movements  of  the 
machine  were  hidden,  the  operator  could  not  see  what  he 
was  doing.  Mergenthaler  felt  that  he  must  redesign  his 
machine  throughout,  so  as  to  confer  visibility  on  its  mo- 
tions. He  intended,  also,  that  his  lines  of  type  should  afford 
an  opportunity  to  correct  an  error  as  work  proceeded,  just 
as  in  manual  typesetting. 

At  this  critical  stage  of  his  progress  our  inventor  seems 
to  have  taken  a  glance  at  what  other  inventors  were  doing, 
as  they  sought  to  supplant  manual  composition.  One  of 
their  noteworthy  attempts  was  to  release  individual  types 
from  their  several  boxes  by  a  keyboard,  these  types  sliding 
together  to  form  a  long  line,  duly  divided  into  short  lines 
and  justified  by  a  second  operator.  This  may  have 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  417 

prompted  the  next  idea  which  arose  in  Mergenthalers  mind, 
— the  adoption  of  single  matrices,  instead  of  bands,  each 
impressed  with  all  the  characters  of  a  font.  This  new 
project  he  sketched  in  a  few  masterly  strokes,  and  showed 
to  Clephane,  Hine,  and  his  other  financial  backers.  It  was  a 
recurrent  shock  to  these  men  that  Good  was  constantly 
ousted  by  Better,  only  to  have  Better  make  way  for  Better 
Still,  with  Best  ever  below  the  horizon. 

"  As  if  machinery  were  invented 
For  only  this — to  be  amended." 

Mergenthaler's  present  design  was  wholly  new  from  base 
to  crest,  and  new  machines  had  become  odious  to  the  men 
who  had  to  pay  for  them.  When  were  experiments  to  end, 
so  that  dividends  might  begin?  Hine,  the  faithful  friend 
of  Mergenthaler,  said :  "  Not  many  stockholders  can  stand 
being  told  that  they  have  the  best  machine  in  the  world, 
but  that  they  should  make  another  still  better."  These  men 
were  not  conducting  a  bureau  of  mechanical  research,  but  a 
machine  shop  meant  to  earn  and  pay  a  profit  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible. In  truth,  Mergenthaler,  in  the  successive  phases  of 
his  linotype,  realized  advances  which  usually  require  suc- 
cessive generations  of  inventors,  or  a  cohort  of  designers 
banded  for  attack  by  a  powerful  syndicate  or  trust.  On 
this  occasion  Mergenthaler's  fellow  share-holders  were  pa- 
tient once  again,  acknowledging  that  if  his  latest  model 
were  practicable,  it  would  be  well  worth  its  cost  in  dollars 
and  delay. 

Mergenthaler,  thus  indorsed,  now  devoted  his  days  and 
nights  to  developing  his  single-matrix  machine.  Its  details 
were  immeasurably  more  troublesome  than  those  of  any 
earlier  linotype,  rising,  as  they  did,  to  a  new  and  higher 
plane  of  invention.  A  cathedral  clock,  such  as  that  we 
have  noticed  at  Strasburg,  has  thousands  of  parts  which 


418          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

present  a  simple  drama  as  its  hours  are  ticked  off,  demand- 
ing in  its  constructor  rare  ingenuity.  But,  after  all,  its 
labyrinth  of  wheels  and  pinions,  levers  and  cams,  are  bound 
together  rigidly,  and  must  move  onward  with  inevitable 
precision  when  once  the  weights  are  wound  up,  and  every 
working  surface  is  clean  and  bright.  But  Mergenthaler 
had  for  the  essential  parts  of  his  linotype  a  procession  of 
matrices  at  times  rigidly  held  in  their  mechanism,  at  other 
times  wholly  free  as  they  moved  from  their  magazines,  and 
were  freely  restored  to  those  magazines  for  their  next  ex- 
cursion. There  must  be  no  sticking  at  any  point,  from 
undue  friction  or  other  cause.  More  than  a  score  of  move- 
ments must  follow  each  other  with  swiftness  and  precision, 
at  temperatures,  too,  varying  as  much  as  480°  Fahren- 
heit. 

Indeed,  the  linotype  is  supreme  among  the  modern  ma- 
chines which  integrate  a  comprehensive  round  of  operations 
and  turn  out  a  complete  article.  Typesetting,  typefound- 
ing,  and  stereotyping  had  been  executed  by  hand,  and,  in 
part,  by  machinery,  before  Mergenthaler  began  to  build  his 
linotype.  He  united  all  three  processes  in  one  machine,  so 
that  an  operator,  with  little  more  labor  than  in  working  a 
typewriter,  now  produced  lines  of  type  ready  for  printing. 
Had  Mergenthaler  in  his  machine  dealt  with  types,  these 
small  and  weak  pieces  of  metal  would  have  been  liable  to 
break  in  passing  through  an  intricate  distributor.  His 
matrices  could  easily  be  made  much  stronger  than  types, 
and,  because  much  larger,  they  easily  received  the  numer- 
ous slots  and  nicks  required  for  distribution.  There  was 
genius,  too,  in  choosing  a  line  instead  of  a  type  as  his 
unit,  greatly  reducing  the  cost  and  labor  of  handling  com- 
posed matter,  while  lessening  the  hazard  of  pi-ing,  so  much 
dreaded  by  printers.  These  are  the  points  of  excellence 
which  keep  the  creation  of  Mergenthaler  far  in  advance  of 
its  rivals. 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  419 

At  this  period  the  success  of  the  linotype  was  assured,  so 
as  to  draw  around  it  a  circle  of  leading  newspaper  pub- 
lishers. Foremost  of  these  came  Stilson  Hutchins,  propri- 
etor of  the  Washington  Post,  who  one  day  brought  with  him 
his  friend  Whitelaw  Reid,  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  an 
introduction  big  with  fate  for  the  linotype,  as  we  shall  duly 
see.  Another  member  of  the  group  was  Melville  E.  Stone, 
of  the  Chicago  New's,  who  was  chosen  president  of  the 
Company  in  the  place  of  Mr.  Hine,  who  resigned.  Mr. 
Stone  wished  the  factory  to  be  removed  to  Chicago,  that  it 
might  receive  his  personal  supervision.  Mergenthaler  de- 
clined to  leave  Baltimore,  so  in  Baltimore  the  factory  re- 
mained. There  work  proceeded  with  energy  never  for  a 
moment  relaxed,  Mergenthaler  engaging  Sumter  Black,  a 
capital  draftsman,  as  his  assistant.  In  the  summer  of  1885 
the  independent  matrix  machine  was  brought  to  a  trium- 
phant test.  In  every  particular  it  displayed  an  advance  on 
previous  designs.  The  matrices  were  stored  in  vertical 
copper  tubes,  each  matrix  descending  at  the  touch  of  a 
finger  key,  to  be  caught  by  its  ears  as  it  dropped  on  a  tiny 
railroad.  Thence  it  was  blown  by  an  air  blast  to  the  as- 
sembling-point. As  each  matrix  was  in  full  view  during  its 
journey,  an  operator  could  correct  errors  in  a  moment. 
He  could  as  easily  insert  italics  or  other  unusual  characters. 
Wedge  spacers  came  in  between  words  to  justify  each  line, 
and  then  the  line  of  matrices  was  borne  to  the  front  of  a 
mold  where  casting  was  effected. 

Hard  work,  long  protracted,  had  been  needed  to  score 
this  great  mechanical  triumph.  A  task  every  whit  as  hard 
was  to  induce  printers  to  employ  the  linotype  so  skilfully 
created.  Manual  composition  was  to  them  quite  satis- 
factory, for  it  yielded  them  a  fair  profit.  It  was  all  very 
well  to  watch  a  model  machine  as  it  responded  to  the  touch 
of  its  inventor,  or  one  of  his  trained  assistants,  but  what 
would  befall  its  intricate  levers  and  cams  under  the  fingers 


420          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

of  an  everyday  operator  ?  Then  came  the  query :  "  How  do 
we  know  that  Mergenthaler  has  come  to  the  end  of  his 
improvements?  Where  will  we  be  if  next  year  he  super- 
sedes his  costly  machine  of  to-day?"  Listening  to  these 
objections,  and  to  the  answers  which  they  elicited,  a  syn- 
dicate of  newspaper  publishers  resolved  to  give  the  lino- 
type a  fair  trial  in  their  offices.  These  leaders  deserve 
mention:  Whitelaw  Reid,  of  the  New  York  Tribune;  Mel- 
ville E.  Stone,  of  the  Chicago  Neivs,  to  whom  succeeded 
Victor  E.  Lawson;  Henry  Smith,  of  the  Chicago  Inter- 
Ocean,  and  Walter  N.  Haldeman,  of  the  Louisville  Courier- 
Journal. 

To  their  composing  rooms  the  linotype  went  forthwith. 
Mr.  Reid,  who  gave  the  linotype  its  name,  was  the  first  to 
set  its  mechanism  in  motion.  In  July,  1886,  it  began  work 
on  the  daily  edition  of  the  Tribune,  and  also  composed  "  The 
Tribune  Book  of  Open  Air  Sports,"  issued  that  year  as  a 
premium.  Other  machines  followed  in  quick  succession, 
until,  at  the  close  of  1886,  a  dozen  of  them  were  busy  in  the 
Tribune  office.  They  gave  fair  satisfaction,  but  they  dis- 
closed weaknesses  and  defects  under  the  severe  strain  of 
newspaper  production.  Trouble,  too,  arose  from  the  em- 
ployment of  operators  wholly  unused  to  machinery.  In  the 
meantime,  despite  Mergenthaler's  protest,  he  was  ordered 
to  build  one  hundred  additional  machines.  He  plainly  saw 
how  he  could  banish  difficulties  which  stood  in  the  way  of 
easy  and  accurate  working.  But  his  board  of  directors 
decided  that  the  Tribune  model  was  good  enough,  and  en- 
joined him  from  modifying  its  design,  for  the  present  at 
least.  Indeed,  the  Board  went  the  length  of  ordering  him 
to  manufacture  a  second  lot  of  one  hundred  machines,  mak- 
ing a  total  of  two  hundred,  although  the  inventor  prophe- 
sied danger  and  loss  from  this  precipitancy.  To  Mergen- 
thaler each  of  his  successive  models  was  but  a  milestone  to 
be  passed  in  an  onward  march.  To  the  Linotype  Company 


LINOTYPE.     FIRST  MACHINE  WITH  INDEPENDENT  OR  FREE  MATRICES 

OF    1885 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  421 

this  Tribune  machine  marked  a  winning-post,  which  it  was 
idle  to  overpass. 

With  undisguised  reluctance  Mergenthaler  proceeded  to 
execute  the  behest  of  his  directors.  The  plant  in  Camden 
Street  was  enlarged,  and  its  staff  was  increased  from  forty 
to  one  hundred  and  sixty.  In  Preston  Street  a  building  was 
hired  where  one  hundred  hands  were  kept  busy  producing 
matrices  and  assembling  linotypes.  Contracts  were  let  for 
the  framework  of  the  machines,  and  for  some  of  their  larger 
parts,  so  as  to  confine  the  Company's  own  manufacture  to 
matrices,  to  the  more  delicate  mechanism,  and  to  assembling. 
Mergenthaler  had  now  to  cover  a  vast  and  diversified  field. 
First  of  all,  he  had  to  design  many  special  tools:  he  had 
to  educate  raw  recruits  into  proficiency:  and  all  the  while 
he  was  under  constant  pressure  from  his  stockholders  for 
quick  and  ample  dividends. 

A  prime  need  was  to  produce  matrices  at  low  cost.  An 
attempt  to  have  them  furnished  by  contractors  ended  in 
total  failure.  To  supply  an  adequate  plant  for  matrices 
demanded  no  fewer  than  thirty  special  machines,  all  to  be 
provided  with  skilled  attendants.  With  these  at  command, 
Mergenthaler  was  able  to  turn  out  matrices  at  a  cost  within 
the  estimates  of  his  principals.  His  initial  task  was  to  pre- 
pare and  maintain  the  stamps  which  indented  these  matrices. 
The  Benton  &  Waldo  engraving  machine,  when  it  appeared, 
was  just  what  he  needed,  but  it  came  so  late  that  it  found 
Mergenthaler  far  advanced  in  devising  a  similar  machine. 
In  the  meantime  vexations  sprang  up  on  every  side.  Con- 
tractors were  tardy  with  deliveries ;  and  their  supplies  were 
often  of  inferior  quality.  From  the  Tribune  office  were  re- 
turned faulty  matrices  which  testified  to  careless  manufac- 
ture. Mergenthaler  did  all  that  mortal  could  in  training  his 
staff.  He  printed  instructions  in  detail,  such  as  are  issued 
to-day  by  "  efficiency  experts."  He  remained  with  his  men 
from  dawn  to  dusk— and  later.  When  he  saw  a  mistake, 


422          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

he  corrected  it  with  his  own  hands ;  but,  nevertheless,  work 
proceeded  with  provoking  slowness,  especially  in  the  as- 
sembling-room. Thus  always  must  a  pioneer  suffer  from 
the  absence  of  formed  habits  and  aptitudes  in  his  working 
force,  from  their  utter  lack  of  the  inherited  and  contagious 
skill  which  abounds  in  every  long  established  trade  and 
industry. 

From  the  Tribune  office  Mergenthaler  received  golden 
hints  from  two  trusty  lieutenants,  Ferdinand  J.  Wich  and 
Ernest  Girod.  At  first  the  cams  whicn  ejected  the  slugs 
were  of  cast  iron,  so  as  to  wear  rapid)/.  They  suggested 
hardened  steel  instead.  Cams  which  bore  grooves  were 
liable  to  choking  by  splashes  of  molten  metal.  These  grooves 
should  be  omitted  in  future  designs.  The  ejector  lever  was 
feebly  bolted  to  its  frame,  so  that  it  soon  worked  loose. 
Strength  here  was  called  for.  Minor  improvements  in  the 
lifting  and  distributing  mechanism  were  also  proposed  by 
these  faithful  allies  of  the  inventor.  His  new  machines  al- 
ways embodied  the  improvements  thus  suggested  to  him. 

It  was  the  task  of  assembling  his  machines  that  most  ex- 
asperated the  forbearing  spirit  of  Mergenthaler.  As  a 
spur  he  offered  a  bonus  of  ten  dollars  for  every  machine  as- 
sembled within  a  reasonable,  appointed  cost.  One  of  his 
men  was  soon  assembling  two  machines  a  week,  adding 
twenty  dollars  to  his  wages  every  Saturday  night.  Includ- 
ing his  handsome  bonus,  this  dexterous  worker's  machines 
cost  less  to  assemble  than  any  others  produced  in  the  shop, 
repeating  the  familiar  experience  that  the  highest  priced 
labor  is  cheapest  in  the  end,  because  the  most  efficient. 
Mergenthaler  now  extended  his  bonuses  from  the  as- 
sembling-room to  the  manufacturing  department,  where 
they  stimulated  output  in  the  like  cheering  fashion.  By 
February,  1888,  fifty  machines  had  been  delivered  to  news- 
paper offices  within  the  subscribing  circle.  During  this 
period  of  hard  work,  largely  experimental,  Mergenthaler 


LINOTYPE.     TRIBUNE  MACHINE  OF  1886 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  423 

and  his  directors  gradually  drifted  apart.  Their  quarrel 
culminated  on  March  15,  1888,  when,  in  'a  mood  of  just 
anger,  the  inventor  resigned  from  the  Company's  service. 
Mergenthaler  was  a  sensitive  man,  of  highly  strung  nerves, 
and  unrelenting  criticism  from  a  standpoint  purely  financial 
chafed  him  beyond  endurance.  The  Company  now  re- 
moved its  factory  from  Baltimore  to  Brooklyn,  where  its 
vast  structure  on  Ryerson  Street  forms  one  of  the  land- 
marks of  Greater  New  York.  In  1889,  the  next  year,  im- 
mense profits  began  to  be  reaped  from  linotypes.  In  that 
twelvemonth  the  New  York  Tribune  saved  $80,000  by  the 
use  of  its  machines.  Other  offices  netted  a  proportionate 
gain.  And  yet  the  inventor's  royalty  was  now  only  fifty 
dollars  per  machine,  to  which  figure,  in  a  moment  of  weak- 
ness, he  had  been  induced  to  lower  his  compensation.  In 
thus  modifying  his  original  agreement,  which  gave  him 
$120,  Mergenthaler  committed  what  he  regarded  as  the 
chief  mistake  of  his  life. 

Mergenthaler's  pride  and  passion  was  the  machine  which 
he  had  created,  and,  notwithstanding  his  rupture  with  the 
Linotype  Company,  he  continued  to  add  to  the  value  of  their 
property  by  further  improvement  of  his  designs.  As  his 
assistant  he  engaged  Alfred  Peterson,  a  talented  draftsman. 
Surveying  the  results  of  actual  work  for  months  together, 
Mergenthaler  proceeded  to  dismiss  one  difficulty  and  defect 
after  another.  First  of  all,  he  attacked  the  keyboard  touch, 
which  was  hard  and  variable,  so  that  only  a  deft 'operator 
could  keep  the  matrices  from  occasionally  flying  out  of  their 
channels.  The  distributor  lacked  strength :  this  part  and 
other  parts  were  not  easy  of  access  to  a  repairer.  Matrices 
were  no  longer  borne  by  an  air  blast,  but  fell  by  gravity 
to  the  assembling-space  from  magazines  diagonally  placed. 
The  distributing  elevator  was  replaced  by  the  familiar  arm 
which,  after  the  casting  process,  now  lifted  the  lines  of 
matrices  to  the  top  of  the  machine,  where  they  automatically 


424          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

dropped  into  their  individual  boxes.  The  column  base  was  in- 
troduced, the  justifying  and  locking  devices  were  improved, 
the  channel  plate  was  provided  with  hinged  ends,  double 
channels  were  furnished  for  "  e  "  and  "  n,"  the  two-line 
letter  was  devised  so  as  greatly  to  facilitate  the  composition 
of  advertisements  in  newspapers.  This  machine,  says  Mr. 
Frederick  J.  Warburton,  treasurer  of  the  Mergenthaler 
Linotype  Company,  marks  the  milestone  between  linotypes 
ancient  and  modern. 

Severe  toil  and  unending  anxiety  told  at  last  on  the 
rugged  frame  of  Mergenthaler.  In  September,  1888,  he 
was  attacked  by  pleurisy,  and  for  weeks  his  life  trembled  in 
the  balance.  He  recovered,  thanks  to  the  nursing  of  his 
devoted  wife,  but  with  health  so  impaired  that  he  afterward 
fell  a  victim  to  consumption.  As  he  regained  strength  he 
resumed  work  on  his  linotype,  and  by  the  close  of  1888  he 
brought  its  mechanism  to  the  form  which  it  substantially  re- 
tained until  his  death,  eleven  years  later.  His  designs, 
sketched  with  his  wonted  clearness,  were  laid  before  his 
friends,  with  the  information  that  the  inventor  had  not 
the  means  to  give  them  effect.  Again  James  Ogilvie  Cle- 
phane  stepped  into  the  breach ;  he  collected  ten  checks,  each 
for  $200,  and  remitting  the  $2,000  to  Mergenthaler,  enabled 
him  to  build  what  proved  to  be  his  last  and  best  machine. 
In  the  course  of  1889  this  model  was  brought  to  a  test  which 
stamped  it  as  an  unqualified  success.  It  was  not  only 
swifter  than  its  forerunners,  but  it  did  better  work.  As  a 
structure  it  had  gained  both  strength  and  steadiness.  But 
its  weight  was  still  excessive,  a  fault  chargeable  to  its 
draftsman,  whose  frames  were  apt  to  be  unduly  massive. 
It  was  determined  to  lighten  the  patterns  judiciously,  and 
then  build  a  second  machine  to  serve  as  a  model  in  manu- 
facturing. This  machine  was  finished  in  February,  1890, 
and  forthwith  exhibited  in  the  Judge  Building,  New  York, 
by  James  Clephane  and  Abner  Greenleaf,  the  friends  tried 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  425 

and  true  of  its  inventor.  This  exhibition  had  a  telling  re- 
sult: within  a  few  months  several  hundred  orders  were 
received.  All  doubt  and  hesitation  on  the  part  of  printers 
was  now  at  an  end.  Firms  of  limited  capital,  or  who  wished 
to  avoid  risks  of  supersedure,  could  lease  machines  instead 
of  buying  them.  The  Company  established  a  school  for 
linotypers,  in  which  expertness  rapidly  passed  from  seniors 
to  juniors.  The  machine  of  1888  was  an  acknowledged 
money-maker.  Its  successor  of  1890  was  quicker,  easier  to 
handle,  and  much  less  liable  to  get  out  of  order. 

While  the  linotype  had  been  quietly  passing  from  prac- 
ticability to  excellence,  it  had  won  over  the  publishers  at 
first  by  scores,  and  then  by  hundreds.  But  what  of  the 
working  printers,  especially  those  enlisted  in  the  Typo- 
graphical Unions  ?  It  was  a  memorable  day  for  the  manu- 
facturing company  when  its  machines  were  adopted  by  the 
Standard-Union  office  in  Brooklyn,  a  few  blocks  away. 
This  large  office  was  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Typographical 
Union  No.  6,  the  largest  and  most  powerful  in  Ame-rica. 
This  acceptance  of  the  linotype  by  organized  labor  came 
about  mainly  through  the  diplomacy  of  Mr.  Hine,  a  man  of 
tact,  sympathy,  and  candor.  In  December,  1891,  Mr.  Hine 
resigned  from  the  presidency  of  the  Company,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Mr.  Philip  T.  Dodge,  who,  as  patent  attorney 
and  legal  adviser,  had  rendered  inestimable  services  to  the 
concern. 

While  financiers  were  at  last  reaping  golden  harvests  from 
the  linotype,  there  was  tragedy  not  far  away.  Mergen- 
thaler's  invention  came  to  its  victory  at  a  time  of  profound 
depression  in  business.  This,  on  one  hand,  stimulated  sales 
of  the  machine,  the  while  that  many  a  compositor  past  his 
prime  was  thrown  out  of  work.  Operators  at  the  new  key- 
board were  for  the  most  part  dexterous  young  fellows,  who 
soon  outpaced  hand  typesetters  four  to  five  times.  Then, 
more  than  now,  a  good  deal  of  work  had  to  be  done  at 


426          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

cases,  in  setting  books,  in  composing  display  advertise- 
ments, and  the  like.  This  kept  a  few  veterans  on  payrolls ; 
but  at  first  hundreds,  and  then  thousands,  were  cut  adrift. 
To-day  there  are  more  compositors  proportionately  than 
ever  before.  Newspapers  are  leafier,  books  more  numerous. 
This  expansion,  to  be  credited  as  much  to  cheap  paper  as  to 
cheap  composition,  came  only  in  the  course  of  years ;  and  in 
the  meantime  there  was  acute  and  widespread  suffering. 
Over  and  over  again  appeared  characteristic  aid  from  within 
the  ranks  of  printers  themselves.  In  one  large  New  York 
office  the  operators  for  years  worked  but  five  days  in  the 
week,  so  that  they  might  be  employed  in  sevens  instead  of 
fives.  During  that  time  of  bitter  stress  many  a  poor  old 
printer,  unfit  to  face  the  new  rivalry  of  keys  and  cams,  took 
his  life.  One  morning  a  Union  almoner  entered  a  printer's 
wretched  quarters  near  Brooklyn  Bridge,  where  a  baby  had 
two  hours  before  been  born.  Every  stick  of  furniture  but 
a  bed  and  a  chair  had  been  sold  for  bread  or  burned  for 
fuel.  This  almoner  was  a  story-writer  for  weekly  journals. 
A  friend  to  whom  he  recited  this  visit  asked  him  why  he 
did  not  describe  it  in  his  next  tale ?  Said  he :  "I  would  as 
lief  make  '  copy '  out  of  my  mother's  deathbed !  " 

When  other  revolutionary  inventions  threaten  similar 
woe,  may  not  Property  be  just  and  merciful  enough  to 
bestow  a  part  of  its  enormous  gains  on  the  men,  and  women, 
from  whom  otherwise  the  new  machinery  would  tear  the 
little  that  they  have?  During  1910  the  Mergenthaler 
Linotype  Company  earned  $2,733,000,  having  built  to  the 
close  of  that  year  in  America  no  fewer  than  16,000  ma- 
chines. In  foreign  lands  the  production  to  the  same 'date 
was  about  10,000  machines. 

While  shadows  closed  around  many  an  old-time  com- 
positor, they  fell  also  upon  Mergenthaler,  the  innocent  cause 
of  pain  and  loss  as  well  as  the  creator  of  vast  new  wealth 
through  his  marvelous  mechanism.  Toward  the  end  of 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  427 

1894  the  inventor's  health  underwent  a  marked  change  for 
the  worse.  He  was  informed  by  his  physician  that  tuber- 
culosis had  begun  its  ravages.  Mergenthaler  at  once  re- 
moved to  the  Blue  Mountains  of  Maryland,  and  afterward 
took  up  his  residence  at  Saranac  Lake,  New  York,  in  the 
Baker  cottage,  occupied  seven  years  prior  by  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson.  Although  he  sometimes  enjoyed  days  which 
promised  a  restoration  of  strength,  these  days  became  fewer 
and  fewer.  Dreading  the  rigors  of  the  North,  he  con- 
cluded to  take  up  his  abode  in  Arizona.  Thither  he  went 
from  Baltimore  in  June,  1896.  Near  Prescott  he  built  a 
pavilion  where  he  lived  for  six  months  with  a  guide  as  his 
companion.  Thence  he  sought  a  more  favorable  climate  in 
Deming,  New  Mexico,  where,  in  November  of  the  next 
year,  his  house,  with  its  contents,  was  destroyed  by  fire.  He 
had  occupied  himself  for  months  in  writing  his  autobiog- 
raphy, based  upon  many  records,  legal  and  personal,  and 
hundreds  of  letters.  All  went  up  in  flame.  In  April,  1898, 
he  returned  from  Deming  to  Baltimore,  where  he  wrote  an 
autobiography  much  briefer  in  compass  than  the  volume 
burned  in  New  Mexico.  In  Baltimore  his  strength  steadily 
failed,  and  he  expired  on  Saturday,  October  28,  1899,  at  his 
house,  159  West  Lanvale  Street.  Three  days  later  his 
burial  took  place  in  Loudon  Park  Cemetery.  Long  before 
the  closing  scene  his  heart  was  cheered  by  recognition  of 
his  great  talents:  he  was  awarded  a  medal  by  Cooper  In- 
stitute, New  York;  the  John  Scott  medal  by  the  City  of 
Philadelphia;  and  the  Elliott  Cresson  gold  medal  by  the 
Franklin  Institute,  Philadelphia. 

Let  us  return  to  1899,  and  watch  a  linotype  as  its  in- 
ventor left  it,  that  we  may  have  a  just  impression  of  his  ex- 
traordinary gifts  as  an  inventor.  At  the  top  of  the  machine 
is  a  magazine,  divided  into  90  parts,  containing  about  1,500 
matrices,  which  respond  to  an  operator's  touch  on  a  key- 


428         LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

board.  Each  matrix  is  a  small,  flat  plate  of  brass,  having  on 
one  edge  an  incised  letter,  and  in  the  upper  end  a  series  of 
teeth  for  distributing  purposes.  There  are  several  matrices 
for  each  character,  and  for  spaces  and  "  quads  "  of  definite 
thicknesses.  Used  in  connection  with  these  matrices  are 
spacers  shaped  as  double-wedges,  inserted  between  words. 

As  the  keyboard  is  manipulated,  the  matrices  descend  to 
an  inclined  traveling  belt,  which  carries  them  into  the  as- 
sembler. This  task  continues  until  the  assembler  contains 
characters  enough  for  one  line  of  print.  It  then  moves 
to  a  mold  extended  through  the  mold  wheel,  the  mold  being 
of  the  size  required  for  a  slug.  The  assembled  matrix  line 
now  closes  the  front  of  this  mold,  and  the  faces  of  the 
matrices  are  brought  into  line  with  it.  At  this  point  the 
wedge-shaped  spacers  are  pushed  through  the  line,  effecting 
justification.  Behind  the  mold  is  a  pot,  heated  by  gas,  con- 
taining molten  type  metal.  This  pot  has  a  mouthpiece  ar- 
ranged to  close  the  rear  of  the  mold,  and  is  provided  with 
a  pump.  While  the  matrix  line  is  in  position,  this  pump 
forces  its  metal  into  the  mold,  so  as  to  fill  the  incised  char- 
acters of  the  matrices.  The  type  metal  solidifies  instantly. 
The  mold  wheel  then  makes  part  of  a  revolution,  bringing 
the  mold  in  front  of  an  ejector  blade,  which  pushes  the  slug 
out  of  the  mold  into  a  receiving  galley,  ready  for  printing. 
To  insure  absolute  accuracy  in  the  thickness  and  height  of 
slugs,  knives  act  upon  them  during  their  travel  to  the  galley. 
The  line  of  matrices  is  then  lifted  from  the  mold  to  the  dis- 
tributor bar  at  the  top  of  the  machine,  the  wedge-shaped 
spacers  being  left  behind  and  taken  to  their  own  receptacle. 

Automatic  distribution,  perfected  in  this  machine,  de- 
serves a  moment's  pause.  It  began  with  a  French  inventor, 
Robert  Etienne  Gaubert,  in  1840.  His  mechanism  was 
much  improved  by  Soreson  and  other  ingenious  mechanics. 
To  an  observer  unfamiliar  with  contrivances  of  this  kind, 
the  effect  is  puzzling.  How  do  the  "  a's  "  find  their  way 


THE  LINOTYPE  MACHINE,  1899 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  429 

into  box  "  a,"  the  "  b's  "  into  box  "  b,"  and  so  on?  Let 
us  take  the  simplest  case  possible,  and  suppose  that  the 
"  a's  "  have  an  ear  at  each  upper  end,  by  which  they  ride 
on  a  rail  along  which  they  are  impelled  by  a  rapid  screw. 
Let  that  rail  end  just  above  the  "  a  "  box,  and  all  the  u  a's  " 
will  drop  into  that  box.  But  in  a  linotype  there  are  90  char- 
acters, and  it  is  impossible  to  give  each  a  pair  of  rails  to 
itself.  What  then  ?  Suppose  you  give  the  "  b's "  two 
pairs  of  ears,  one  pair  above  the  other,  with  four  rails 
for  them  to  ride  upon.  The  "  b's  "  will  fall  only  at  a  place 
where  both  pairs  of  rails  come  to  an  end,  and  at  that  point 
they  will  find  the  "  b  "  box.  Each  matrix  in  the  whole 
array  of  90  is  thus  provided  with  ears  peculiar  to  itself, 


Two  WEDGES  IN  CONTACT,  THEIR  OUTER  SIDES  PARALLEL 

and  with  a  box  into  which  it  drops  when  those  ears  find 
their  rails  interrupted. 

Justification,  every  whit  as  difficult  as  distribution,  was 
accomplished  by  Mergenthaler  in  his  step-by-step  wedges. 
These  were  forced  between  each  pair  of  words  until  a  line, 
effectually  tightened,  was  cast.  The  spacers  patented  by 
Jacob  William  Schuckers,  in  1885,  are  a  preferable  because 
a  continuous  device.  He  placed  two  long  thin  wedges  to- 
gether so  that  their  boundaries  were  parallel.  When  such 
pairs  of  wedges  are  driven  into  a  line  as  far  as  they  will 
go,  perfect  justification  is  the  result.  In  its  original  form, 
dating  from  the  dawn  of  human  wit,  a  wedge  has  had 
boundaries  inclined  to  each  other.  There  was  long  ago  a 
heightening  of  the  value  of  wedges  by  using  them  in  pairs, 
the  sharp  edge  of  one  wedge  being  laid  against  the  thick 


430 


LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 


back  of  another,  so  that  their  outer  boundaries  were  paral- 
lel. Wedges  thus  united,  and  slidden  upon  one  another, 
serve  to  lift  great  weights.  In  small  sizes  they  are  the 
taper-parallels  and  taper-wedges  of  machinists.  In 
a  few  small  printing  offices  there  still  linger  wedges  in  pairs 
used  to  secure  type  in  its  iron  frame,  called  a  chase.  One 


Surfaces  A  art  Bare  \ 
other) 


liflU 

J.  W.  SCHUCKERS'  DOUBLE-WEDGE  JUSTIFIER 

series  of  wedges  is  cast  on  the  inner  side  of  this  chase; 
between  these  cast  wedges  and  the  type  wooden  wedges,  or 
quoins,  are  driven  by  a  shooting  stick  and  a  mallet.  Here, 
indeed,  Schuckers  may  have  received  a  suggestion  for 
double-wedges  so  refined  as  to  conquer  a  field  incomparably 
more  important  than  any  other  to  which  wedges  had  ever 
before  been  applied.* 

*  Jacob  William  Schuckers  was  born  in  Philadelphia  on  March  18, 
1831,  of  a  German  father  and  a  Irish  mother.  In  1832  his  parents 
removed  to  Wooster,  Ohio,  which  became  their  permanent  home. 
Jacob  attended  public  schools  until  1846,  when  he  entered  the  com- 
posing room  of  the  Wooster  Republican,  and  learned  the  printer's 
trade.  He  remained  there  until  1859,  when  he  went  to  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  and  worked  as  a  printer  on  the  Leader  of  that  city.  During 
the  summer  of  1860  he  became  a  clerk  in  the  United  States  Treas- 
ury at  Washington.  Next  year,  when  the  Hon.  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
of  Ohio,  was  appointed  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  he  engaged 
Schuckers  as  his  private  secretary,  always  regarding  him  with  im- 


OTTMAR  MERGENTHALER  431 

We  note  that  in  a  linotype  three  distinct  operations  go 
'forward  together, — composing  one  line,  casting  a  second, 
and  distributing  a  third,  so  that  the  machine  has  a  pace 
exceeding  that  at  which  an  expert  operator  can  finger  his 
keys.  This  high  speed  of  circulation  renders  it  unneces- 
sary to  have  more  than  a  few  matrices  of  any  uncommon 
sort,  such  as  accented  or  mathematical  characters.  A  lino- 
type usually  turns  out  5,000  ems  of  solid,  justified,  and  per- 
fectly spaced  matter  per  hour,  in  the  hands  of  a  single 
operator ;  this  is  four  to  five  times  faster  than  manual  com- 
position. As  each  line  is  composed  in  plain  sight,  correc- 
tions may  be  effected  before  a  line  is  cast,  as  easily  as  in 
typesetting  by  hand.  As  errors  in  distribution  are  impos- 
sible, machine  proofs  are  much  less  faulty  than  matter  set  by 
hand.  By  a  change  of  matrices  and  molds,  easily  and 
quickly  effected,  a  machine  produces  any  face,  from  agate 
to  small  pica,  and  any  length  of  line  not  exceeding  five 
inches.  Each  magazine  contains  channels  for  a  font  of 
matrices:  these  may  be  of  any  face  desired,  and  each 
machine  may  have  two,  three,  or  four  magazines. 

A  machine   requires   about  one-third   of   a  horse-power 

plicit  confidence  and  high  esteem.  When  Mr.  Chase  became  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  Schuckers  proceeded 
to  Albany,  New  York,  where  he  studied  law,  but  he  developed  a 
dislike  of  law,  and  never  completed  his  studies.  He  now  wrote  a 
Life  of  Mr.  Chase,  and  for  years  contributed  to  the  Sun  and  other 
New  York  papers,  as  well  as  to  the  press  of  Philadelphia.  In  that 
city  he  speculated  in  real  estate  with  profit,  but  the  panic  of  1873 
swept  away  his  little  fortune.  He  then  began  to  devise  a  type- 
setting machine,  producing  a  succession  of  ingenious  designs.  In 
his  latest  model  he  used  a  typewriter  keyboard,  and  introduced  his 
double-wedge  spacer.  During  the  closing  years  of  his  life  he  re- 
sided in  Newark. 

In  1901  he  was  secretary  for  the  New  Jersey  Commission  at  the 
Pan-American  Exhibition  in  Buffalo.  In  October  he  was  taken 
seriously  ill.  On  November  19  he  died:  four  days  afterward  his  re- 
mains were  laid  at  rest  in  Rock  Creek  Cemetery,  Washington. 


432          LEADING  AMERICAN  INVENTORS 

to  drive  it;  this  can  be  most  satisfactorily  supplied  by  an 
electric  motor.  It  is  important  that  the  metal  for  the  melt- 
ing pot  be  of  good  quality,  and  maintained  in  excellence. 
Its  temperature  should  not  exceed  550°  Fahrenheit.  This 
metal,  in  the  latest  machines,  is  heated  by  electricity. 

Since  Mergenthaler's  day  his  linotype  has  been  adapted 
to  composing  books  of  the  most  exacting  kind,  mathematical 
treatises  and  the  like.  The  book  in  the  reader's  hands  was 
composed  on  a  Number  One  model.  Both  for  the  composi- 
tion of  books  and  newspapers  new  facilities  are  constantly 
being  created  by  the  Mergenthaler  Linotype  Company, 
whose  staff  of  inventors  is  directed  by  Mr.  John  R.  Rogers. 
In  the  latest  model  four  magazines  of  matrices  are  at  an 
operator's  command.  As  each  of  these  magazines  gives  him 
a  choice  of  either  of  two  letters  for  every  one  of  his  90 
keys,  he  has  no  fewer  than  720  different  characters  at  his 
ringers'  ends.  Mr.  Rogers  has  devised  a  simple  mode  of 
casting  slugs  with  deep  recesses,  into  which  brass  rules  may 
be  readily  inserted  for  tabular  work  such  as  reports  of  banks, 
boards  of  trade,  and  the  like.  A  device  equally  ingenious 
casts  letters  twice  as  long  as  ordinary  type :  these  serve  to 
print  an  initial  word  in  an  advertising  or  other  announce- 
ment. To-day  letters  are  cast  in  many  languages,  and  in 
sizes  large  enough  for  newspaper  headings.  Manual  com- 
position in  newspaper  and  job  offices  has,  therefore,  a  nar- 
rower field  than  ever,  with  a  prospect  of  total  supersedure  at 
no  distant  day.  In  its  earlier  models,  the  linotype  offered 
but  one  font  for  a  single  task.  To-day  a  No.  9  machine 
permits  the  union,  in  one  line,  of  eight  or  more  diverse 
alphabets.  Metal  for  slugs  may  now  be  hard  enough  to 
print  100,000  impressions  before  showing  perceptible  wear. 
It  may  be  recalled  that  Mergenthaler,  at  the  outset  of  his 
project  for  single  matrices,  estimated  their  cost  at  two  dol- 
lars each.  To-day  a  matrix  bearing  a  single  letter  costs  but 
three  cents. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Accidental  discoveries,   192 

Air  engines,  their  shortcomings, 
227 

Allston,  Washington,  teacher  of 
S.  F.  B.  Morse,  123;  on 
Morse's  theory  of  colors,  136; 
letter  from  Morse  on  photog- 
raphy, 155;  portrait  and  Jere- 
miah presented  by  Morse  to 
Yale,  173 

Alphabet,  dot-and-dash,  Morse, 
149;  its  precursors,  150;  its 
universal  applicability,  152 

Appleby,  John  F.,  knotter,  305 

Ardrey,  Robert  L.,  "  American 
Agricultural  Implements "  on 
Ogle  reaper,  282;  on  early 
McCormick  reaper,  299;  on 
Appleby  self-binder,  307 

Armor  and  guns,  their  duel,  31, 
53;  a  forecast  in  Fulton's 
"Torpedo  War,"  53 

Artists  in  their  imagination  akin 
to  inventors,  128 


B 

Bacon,  Francis,  telegraphic  code, 
149 

Banks,  Nathaniel  P.,  cousin  and 
shopmate  of  Elias  Howe,  344 

Barlow,  Joel,  host  of  Robert 
Fulton,  47;  death,  47;  letter 
from  Fulton  to,  64 

Beach,  Alfred  E.,  writing  ma- 
chine, 323,  326 

Bell,  Patrick,  describes  his  reap- 
er, 284 ;  Slight's  account,  290 ; 
picture  of  reaper,  291 ;  testi- 
monial to  Bell,  293 

Bernard,  Charles,  on  John  Erics- 
son as  draftsman,  243 


Bird,  tailor,  of  India,  346 

Blakey,  William,  devises  tubular 
boiler,  12 

Blanchard,  Thomas,  birth  and 
early  life,  107;  copied  busts 
on  lathe  in  National  Capitol, 
104;  details  of  design,  106; 
builds  a  forge,  107 ;  makes  an 
apple-parer,  108;  makes  tacks 
and  a  tack  machine,  109 ;  its 
details,  no,  in;  designs  a 
lathe  guided  by  a  cam,  112; 
invents  copying  lathe,  113;  its 
uses  and  modifications,  115; 
advocates  a  railroad  for  Mas- 
sachusetts, 115;  builds  the 
Vermont,  Massachusetts,  and 
other  steamers,  1 16 ;  designs  a 
machine  for  bending  timber, 
1 1 6,  117;  becomes  an  expert 
in  patent  cases,  118 

Bloodgood,  Abraham,  revolving 
turret,  255 

Blower,  centrifugal,  Ericsson, 
221 

Blunt,  Colonel  S.  E.,  modern 
rifle  Springfield  Armory  com- 
pared with  Whitney  musket, 
100 

Boiler,  water-tube,  Stevens,  ad- 
vantages, 13;  used  by  Fulton, 
58 

Boyce,  Joseph,  cutters  for  reap- 
ers, 281 

Brack,  William  R.,  on  Ottmar 
Mergenthaler,  415 

Braithwaite,  John,  partner  of 
John  Ericsson,  221 

Bramah,  Joseph,  revolving  cut- 
ters, 106 

British  inventors  beginning  I9th 
century,  280 

Brown,  Thomas  and  Joseph, 
build  Ogle  reaper,  282 

Bushnell,  David,  torpedoes,  47 


435 


436 


INDEX 


Calhoun,  John  C,  portraits  and 
busts,  104 

Caldwell,  Mrs.  Jane  R.,  daugh- 
ter of  Elias  Howe,  368 

Caloric  engine,  Ericsson,  225, 
226,  227 

Camden  &  Amboy  Railroad,  24 

Casson,  Herbert  N.,  biographer 
of  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  312 

Chain-stitch,   359 

Chappe  telegraph,  135 

Choate,  Rufus,  on  Blanchard 
and  his  lathe,  105 

Church,  William  Conant,  Life 
of  John  Ericsson,  220 

Clay,  Henry,  portraits  and  busts, 
104 

Clephane,  James  O.,  criticises 
Sholes'  typewriter,  328;  en- 
gages Ottmar  Mergenthaler, 
405,  408;  extends  aid,  424 

Clocks  with  automata,  400 

Cobb,  Nathan  A.,  cotton  classi- 
fication, 95 

Condenser,  surface,  Ericsson, 
222 

Cooper,  James  Fenimore,  friend- 
ship with  S.  F.  B.  Morse,  137 ; 
offends  John  Quincy  Adams, 
141 

Cornell,  Ezra,  builds  first  tele- 
graph line,  159;  subscribes 
for  New  York  line,  162 

Cotton    crop,    94;    classification, 

N.  A.  Cobb,  95 

Cotton  gin,  Whitney,  80;  its 
value  to  the  South  during 
Civil  War,  94;  recent  im- 
provements, 95 

Cutters,  revolving,  development, 
106;  for  reapers,  early  forms, 

Cylinder,  rippling,  William 
Pitt's,  281 


Daguerre,  friendship  with  S.  F. 

B.  Morse,  154 
Davis,     Ari,     employed     Elias 

Howe,  344 


Day,  Jeremiah,  teacher  of  S.  F. 
B.  Morse,  122 

De  Forest,  James,  befriends 
Charles  Goodyear,  185 

De  Forest,  William,  befriends 
Charles  Goodyear,  196 

Delamater,  Cornelius  H.,  friend- 
ship with  John  Ericsson,  242; 
advances  half  cost  Destroyer, 
264 

Densmore,  James,  buys  part 
Sholes'  patent,  327,  328;  fac- 
simile of  letter  to  E.  D.  Inger- 
soll,  329 

Dickens,  Charles,  copies  Sholes' 
recital  of  murder,  320 

Digesters  for  wood  pulp,  faulty 
and  improved,  376 

Distribution  of  type,  395;  of 
matrices  in  linotype,  397,  428 

Dodge,  Philip  T.,  president 
Mergenthaler  Linotype  Co., 

425 

Donatus,  Latin  Grammar,  317 

Dot-and-dash  alphabet,  Morse, 
149;  its  forerunners,  150;  its 
universal  applicability,  152 

Draft,  forced,  devised  by  R.  L. 
and  E.  A.  Stevens,  25;  its 
general  development  and  ad- 
vantages, 26 

Dunlap,  William,  on  S.  F.  B. 
Morse's  theory  of  colors,  136 

Dunlop,  John  Boyd,  pneumatic 
tire,  206 

Dwight,  President  Timothy, 
friend  of  S.  F.  B.  Morse,  121 


Edge-rail,  22 

Electrical  engineering  indebted 
to  telegraph,  119 

Ericsson,  John,  birth,  boy- 
hood, education,  218;  takes 
command  of  600  troops,  joins 
Rifle  Corps,  attains  captaincy, 
219;  studied  artillery,  his 
personality  at  twenty-one,  Life 
by  W.  C.  Church,  220; 
resides  in  Havre,  goes  to 
England,  tests  flame-engine, 


INDEX 


437 


partner  of  John  Braithwaite, 
employs  compressed  air  to 
transmit  motive-power,  de- 
vises centrifugal  blower,  221  ; 
invents  surface  -  condenser, 
places  machinery  of  Victory 
below  water-line,  invents 
steam  fire  engine,  222 ;  "  Nov- 
elty" locomotive,  223;  steam- 
jet  motor,  224;  over-estimates 
value  in  energy  of  fuel,  re- 
generator, invents  caloric  en- 
gine, 225;  marriage,  228; 
aloofness  and  its  penalty,  de- 
signs screw  propeller,  tests  it 
with  success,  229;  designs  a 
direct-acting  engine  for  pro- 
pulsion, alliance  with  Robert 
F.  Stockton,  230 ;  goes  to 
New  York,  232 ;  designs  steam 
frigate  Princeton,  wins  prize 
for  fire  engine,  propellers 
widely  adopted,  232;  fatality 
on  the  Princeton,  233 ;  rein- 
forces guns  with  hoops,  234; 
Government  refuses  payment 
for  designing  Princeton,  235 ; 
writes  in  distress  to  John  D. 
Sargent,  naturalized  in  1848, 
236;  devises  a  pyrometer, 
builds  large  caloric  engines, 
237;  designs  and  builds  the 
Ericsson  caloric  ship,  238; 
wrecked,  239 ;  its  subsequent 
career,  240 ;  reviews  caloric 
principle  with  confidence,  many 
small  caloric  engines  used  with 
profit,  241 ;  Swedish  songs, 
242;  an  accomplished  drafts- 
man, 243 ;  designs,  names,  and 
builds  the  Monitor,  244 ;  de- 
tails, 247;  her  fight  with  the 
Merrimac,  249 ;  congratula- 
tions, 251 ;  writes  John 
Bourne  defending  Monitor  de- 
sign, 253 ;  plans  six  monitors 
for  U.  S.  Navy,  256 ;  designs 
the  'Dictator  and  the  Puritan, 
257;  plans  series  shallow  gun- 
boats, 258;  gives  Sweden  a 
Rodman  gun  and  plans  vessels 
for  her  defense,  designs  gun- 
boats for  Cuba,  259 ;  rotary 


gun-carriage,  devis'es  torpedo, 
262 ;  plans  the  Destroyer, 
with  submarine  gun,  263 ; 
plans  vessel  for  coast  defense, 
265;  improvements  of  steam 
engine  reviewed,  266;  love  of 
country,  267;  honors  from 
Sweden,  monument  in  birth- 
place, 267;  gift  to  Jonas  Ols- 
son,  a  playmate,  gift  to  starv- 
ing Swedes,  death  of  mother, 
268;  generosity  to  kindred 
and  friends,  a  degree  from 
University  of  Lund,  solar 
motor,  269,  270;  homes  in 
New  York,  271 ;  personal 
traits,  272;  methods  of 
thought  and  work,  simple  reg- 
imen and  housekeeping,  273 ; 
serenaded  by  Swedish  soci- 
eties, 274;  last  illness,  death, 
remains  borne  to  Sweden  for 
interment,  275 


Farragut,  Admiral  D.  G.,  on 
monitors,  252 

Fisher,  George,  advances  capital 
to  Elias  Howe,  348 

Fitch,  John,  steamboat,  7,  55 

Forest  Products  Laboratory,  ex- 
periments with  woods  for  pa- 
per pulp,  379 

Fort,  Arthur,  sued  by  Miller  & 
Whitney,  83 

Foucault,  typewriter,  327 

Fox,  Gustavus  Vasa,  assistant 
secretary  U.  S.  Navy,  supports 
John  Ericsson,  248 

Francis,  William,  typewriter, 
323 ;  inked  ribbon,  326 

Franklin  Institute  Journal  on 
reaper  patents,  296;  on  Tilgh- 
man  sand  blast,  381 

Fulton,  Robert,  his  steamboat 
monopoly  abolished,  17;  birth, 
41 ;  early  life,  41 ;  admires 
West's  pictures,  42 ;  learns 
gunsmithing,  42 ;  builds  a  boat 
driven  by  paddle-wheels,  43; 
practises  painting,  44;  sailed 


438 


INDEX 


for  England,  44 ;  devised  in- 
clined planes  for  carrying 
ships,  45 ;  advocated  canals, 
45,  52;  designed  power-shovel, 
46;  invented  iron  aqueduct, 
46;  published  "Canal  Naviga- 
tion," 47;  entertained  by  Joel 
Barlow,  illustrates  his  Co- 
lumbiad,  47 ;  paints  a  pan- 
orama, "  The  Burning  of  Mos- 
cow," 47;  tests  torpedoes,  47; 
builds  the  Nautilus,  a  diving 
boat,  48;  directs  torpedo  boat 
against  British  fleet,  49 ;  de- 
stroys by  torpedoes  a  brig  in 
England,  51 ;  refuses  to  let 
England  suppress  his  torpe- 
does, 51;  plans  steamboat,  54; 
launches  it  with  disaster,  57; 
a  second  experiment  succeeds, 
57;  builds  the  Clermont,  59; 
her  first  trip,  61 ;  plan  of  the 
Clermont,  62;  his  Raritan  and 
Car  of  Neptune,  62;  estab- 
lishes first  steam  ferry  in  New 
York,  63 ;  rules  for  passen- 
gers Hudson  steamboats,  65 ; 
destroys  a  brig  by  torpedoes 
in  New  York  harbor,  66;  in- 
forms Thomas  Jefferson  re- 
garding submarine  gunnery, 
67 ;  a  forecast  in  his  "  Tor- 
pedo War,"  67 ;  criticism  by 
Commodore  Rodgers,  68;  final 
projects,  69;  derived  from  fish 
a  hint  for  submersible  craft, 
70 ;  criticised  Des  Blancs  as 
vague,  70;  precision  of  his 
methods,  71;  exposes  a  "per- 
petual motion,"  71 ;  designs 
Fulton  the  First,  the  first 
steam  warship,  71 ;  death  and 
burial,  72 ;  personality,  career 
reviewed,  73 ;  note  from  Eli 
Whitney,  93 


Gauss    and    Weber,    telegraphic 

code,  151 
Gibbs,    James    A.    E.,    inventor 

sewing  machine,  366 


Giffard,    injector,   384 

Gifford,  George,  peacemaker  in 
sewing  machine  contest,  361 

Gin,  roller,  79;  Whitney,  So,  82 

Girod,  Ernest,  aids  Ottmar  Mer- 
genthaler,  422 

Gladstone  invented  side-draught 
for  reaper,  281 

Glidden,  Carlos,  partner  C.  L. 
Sholes,  321 

Goodyear,  Charles,  birth,  176; 
early  life,  disclaimed  special 
talent  as  mechanic,  177;  mar- 
riage, begins  business  in  Phila- 
delphia, bankruptcy,  178;  first 
observation  of  gum  elastic,  179; 
invents  tube  for  life-preserver, 
180;  tanning  or  curing  gum 
elastic,  181 ;  makes  rubber 
shoes  which  melt,  182  ;  lime  has 
preserving  value,  182 ;  nitric 
acid  banishes  stickiness,  183; 
wife  as  helper,  forms  partner- 
ship with  William  Ballard, 
184;  extreme  poverty,  185; 
buys  Hayward's  patent  for 
sulphur  treatment  of  gum 
elastic,  186;  makes  mail  bags 
which  decompose,  187;  discov- 
ers vulcanization,  daughter's 
account,  189;  first  experiments 
at  home,  mixes  cotton  fiber 
with  rubber  for  cloth,  190; 
vulcanization  not  an  accidental 
discovery,  192;  finds  celerity 
of  production  imperative,  re- 
cites early  experiments,  194; 
goes  to  jail  for  debt,  accepts 
relief  from  bankrupt  court, 
197 ;  reviews  importance  of  vul- 
canized rubber,  198 ;  produces 
hard  rubber,  200;  portrait  by 
Healy  painted  on  hard  rubber, 
200;  vulcanized  rubber  com- 
pared with  its  parent  gum, 
201 ;  modern  manufacture, 
202;  his  note-book,  204;  de- 
signs life-preservers,  205 ; 
keen  interest  in  safety  at  sea, 
drawings  horseman,  lifeboat, 
208;  on  hardships  of  invent- 
ors, 209;  rivalry  of  Macin- 
tosh, 21 1 ;  patents  in  England 


INDEX 


439 


and  France,  213 ;  London  Ex- 
hibition, suit  against  Horace 
H.  Day,  arguments  of  Daniel 
Webster,  213;  letter  from 
Debtor's  Prison,  Boston,  214; 
goes  to  Europe,  death  of  wife, 
second  marriage,  215;  impris- 
oned at  Clichy,  serious  illness, 
returns  to  America,  last  mod- 
els, 216;  death,  217 

Goodyear,  Nelson,  grandson  of 
Charles  Goodyear,  178 

Goodyear,  Prof.  W.  H.,  son  of 
Charles  Goodyear,  178 

Gordon,  James  F.  and  John  H., 
self-binder,  306 

Gorham,  Marquis  L.,  self- 
binder,  306 

Governors,  House  of,  W.  G. 
Jordan,  89 

Greene,  Mrs.  N.,  contributes 
brush  to  cotton  gin,  81 

Greenleaf,  Abner,  exhibits  lino- 
type, 424 

Gum  elastic,  first  importation, 
properties  and  uses,  179 

Gunpowder  in  peace  and  war, 
97 

Guns,  reinforced  with  hoops  by 
Ericsson,  234,  261 

Gutenberg,  John,  casts  type, 
317;  cuts  type-molds,  401 


H 


Hammond,  James  H.,  type- 
writer, 332 

Hancock,  Thomas,  experiments 
in  vulcanization,  211 

Harries,  Prof.  Karl,  produces 
artificial  rubber,  203 

Harvester,  self-binding,  devel- 
opment, 307 

Hayward,  Nathaniel,  combined 
sulphur  with  gum,  Goodyear 
buys  his  patent,  186 

Headers  in  Far  West,  308 

Heath,  Frederick,  on  Sholes 
typewriter,  324 

Heilmann  needle,  eye  in  middle, 
346 

Hemlock  for  paper  pulp,  379 


Henry,  Joseph,  telegraphic  exper- 
iments, 138;  answers  Morse's 
questions,  145 ;  congratulates 
him,  146;  to-day  his  mech- 
anism survives,  165 ;  advocates 
extension  of  Morse's  patent, 
169 

Henry,   William,   steamboat,   54 

Hewitt,  Abram  S.,  reminiscences 
of  Stevens  family,  35 ;  Me- 
morial Cooper  Union,  New 
York,  39 

hine,  Lemon  G.,  promoter  of 
linotype,  410 ;  remonstrance, 
417;  resigns  as  president,  419; 
harmony  with  trades-unions, 
425 

Hofmann,  Dr.  Fritz,  produces 
artificial  rubber,  203 

Holmes,  Hodgen,  cotton  gin,  83 ; 
sued  by  Miller  &  Whitney,  84 

Holmes,  Dr.  O.  W.,  on  the  For- 
getting of  America,  338 

House  of  Governors  suggested 
by  W.  G.  Jordan,  89 

Howe,  Elias,  birth,  342;  monu- 
ment, jack-of-all-trades  in 
boyhood,  343  ;  farmer  as  youth, 
works  in  machine-shop,  34/1 ; 
resolves  to  invent  sewing  ma- 
chine, 345;  first  model,  347; 
details,  349,  350;  demonstra- 
tion, no  buyer,  351 ;  second 
model,  352;  locomotive  run- 
ner, obtains  patent,  sends 
brother  Amasa  to  London 
with  machine,  which  is 
adopted  by  William  Thomas, 
353;  goes  to  England,  adapts 
machine  to  corset-making, 
leaves  Thomas's  employ,  be- 
friended by  Charles  Inglis, 
354;  returns  to  America,  at 
work  in  New  York,  355 ;  death 
of  wife,  prosecutes  pirates, 
356;  opens  shop  in  Gold 
Street,  New  York,  357;  wins 
in  court,  triumph  at  last,  360; 
organizes  a  regiment,  serves  in 
the  ranks,  362;  last  illness  and 
death,  368 

Howe,  Tyler,  uncle  of  Elias 
Howe,  342 


440 


INDEX 


Howe,  William,  uncle  of  Elias 
Howe,  342;  machine  for  cut- 
ting palm  leaves,  348 

Humboldt,  Alexander  Von, 
friendship  with  S.  F.  B. 
Morse,  137 

Hunt,  Walter,  sewing  machine, 
342,  359 

Hussey,  Obed,  reaper,  290;  har- 
vester-finger, 291 ;  rivalry  in 
London  with  McCormick,  304 


I 


Ingersoll,  Edwin  D.,  facsimile 
of  letter  from  James  Dens- 
more  on  Sholes  typewriter, 

T  329 

Inventors  of  imagination  are 
akin  to  artists,  128 


Jack  pine  for  paper  pulp,  379 

Jackson,  Charles  T.,  discusses 
telegraphy  with  S.  F.  B. 
Morse,  137 

Jackson,  Governor  James,  op- 
poses Eli  Whitney,  85 

Jordan,  William  George,  sug- 
gests House  of  Governors,  89 

Justification  in  typesetting,  394; 
in  first  linotype,  413;  in  per- 
fected machine,  Schuckers' 
double  wedges,  429 


K 


Kelvin/  Lord,   improved   sound- 
ing gage,  228 


Lassoe,  F.  V.,  assistant  to  John 

Ericsson,  272 
Lathe,  Blanchard,  at  Springfield 

Armory,  113 
Leslie,    Charles    R.,     friendship 

with  S.   F.   B.    Morse,  teaches 

at  West  Point,  writings,  127 
Leudersdorff,  L.,  discovers  that 


gum  elastic  loses  viscosity  in 
sulphur  solution,  186 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  counsel 
against  Cyrus  H.  McCormick, 
304 

Linotype,  operation,  395;  a  slug, 
397;  diagram  of  machine, 
398 ;  mold  wheel  and  melting 
pot,  399;  first  public  test,  412; 
graduated  wedge  justified, 
414 ;  factory  removed  to 
Brooklyn,  423;  hardships  due 
to  linotypy,  426;  description 
of  1899  machine,  428;  ma- 
chine of  to-day,  431 

Livingston,  Robert  R.,  obtains 
monopoly  of  steam  navigation, 
his  career,  56 

Lock-stitch,   359 

London's  "  Cyclopedia  of  Agri- 
culture "  illustrates  Bell's 
reaper,  290 


M 


Mallory,  Stephen  R.,  directs 
Confederate  Navy,  244 

Mann,  Joseph,  invented  revolv- 
ing rakes,  281 

Mann,  J.  J.  and  H.  F.,  improved 
reaper,  305 

Manning,  William,  reaper,  295, 
296 

Manufactures,  Standardization, 
begun  by  General  Gribeauval, 
developed  by  Eli  Whitney, 
96 

Mapes,  James  J.,  friendship  with 
John  Ericsson,  242 

Marsh,  Charles  W.,  with  Wil- 
liam W.  Marsh  invents  har- 
vester, "  Recollections,"  305 

Marshall,  John,  Chief  Justice, 
decides  against  Fulton,  17 

Matrix  of  linotype,  396 ;  line  of 
matrices  with  justifiers,  396 

Matthews,  Dr.  F.  E.,  produces 
artificial  rubber,  202 

Mathewson,  J.  E.,  improves 
sandblast,  384;  devises  tum- 
bling barrel,  390 

Mellier,  Alfred  C,  made  paper 
from  poplar,  376 


INDEX 


441 


Mercer,  John,  discovers  mer- 
cerization  of  textiles,  199 

McCormick,  Cyrus  Hall,  fore- 
fathers, 276;  birth,  early  life, 
277;  begins  work  on  reaper, 
letter  to  Philip  Pusey,  on  early 
models,  279 ;  first  patent,  pic- 
ture of  reaper,  1834,  295 ;  first 
advertisement,  buys  Cotopaxi 
Furnace,  296;  resumes  work 
on  reaper,  gives  demonstra- 
tion, 297 ;  sales  slow,  goes 
West  prospecting,  298 ;  sec- 
ond patent,  299,  300;  third 
patent,  301 ;  removes  to  Chi- 
cago, 302;  business  methods, 
exhibits  in  London,  1851,  303; 
sues  Talcott,  Emerson  &  Co., 
whose  counsel  included  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  304;  adopts  self- 
binder,  306 ;  contrast  between 
first  reaper  and  harvester, 
307 ;  adopts  scientific  manage- 
ment, removes  to  New  York, 
when  Chicago  burns  he  re- 
turns thither,  rebuilds  factory, 
310;  becomes  president  com- 
pany, political  activity,  311; 
interest  in  church  affairs,  gifts 
to  Seminaries  and  University, 
312;  personality  sketched  by 
Herbert  N.  Casson,  313;  mar- 
riage, last  days,  death,  314 

McCormick,  Leander  and  Wil- 
liam, brothers  and  partners  of 
Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  302 

McCormick,  Robert,  father  of 
Cyrus  Hall  McCormick,  277; 
large  estate,  invents  hemp- 
brake,  invents  reaper,  278 ; 
buys  Cotopaxi  Furnace,  296 

Mergenthaler,  Ottmar,  arrival 
in  Baltimore,  a  watchmaker, 
393 ;  birth,  parentage,  early 
days,  401 ;  begins  work  in 
Washington,  403 ;  removes  to 
Baltimore,  404 ;  takes  up 
Moore  writing-machine,  405 ; 
improves  it,  407;  marriage, 
410;  adopts  type-metal  instead 
of  papier-mache,  411;  bar-in- 
denting machine,  411;  success- 
ful public  test,  412 ;  royalty 


arranged,  414;  his  personality, 
love  of  music,  415 ;  banquet  in 
Washington,  416;  adopts  sin- 
gle matrices,  417;  effects  im- 
provements, 418;  produces 
cheap  matrices,  421 ;  final  im- 
provements, attacked  by  pleu- 
risy, 423 ;  develops  tubercu- 
losis, death,  honors,  427 

Merrimac,  prepared  to  fight, 
244;  the  fight,  249;  sinks,  251 

Miller,  Phineas,  becomes  part- 
ner of  Eli  Whitney,  81 ;  death, 
92 

Monitor,  planned  by  John  Erics- 
son, 244 ;  offered  to  Govern- 
ment, 245 ;  why  so  named, 
built,  246;  first  voyage,  248; 
fights  the  Merrimac,  249; 
sinks,  251 ;  her  design  de- 
fended by  Ericsson,  253 ;  her 
revolving  turret  adopted 
throughout  the  world,  254;  its 
precursors  invented  by  Theo- 
dore R.  Timby,  255,  and  Abra- 
ham Bloodgood,  256 

Moore,  Charles  T.,  writing-ma- 
chine, 405;  a  transfer  sheet, 
407 

Morse,  Edward  Lind,  describes 
pictures  of  father,  Samuel  F. 
B.  Morse,  141 

Morse,  Rev.  Jedidiah,  father  of 
S.  F.  B.  Morse,  120;  death, 

133 

Morse,  Samuel  F.  B.,  indebted- 
ness to  predecessors,  120; 
birth,  draws  caricature  as  a 
child,  enters  Yale  College, 
122 ;  begins  portraiture,  studies 
electricity,  123  ;  paints  Landing 
of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth, 
studies  art  with  Washington 
Allston,  123 ;  criticism  from 
Benjamin  West,  124;  models 
The  Dying  Hercules,  125 ; 
friendship  with  C.  R.  Leslie, 
learns  much  from  fellow- 
students,  127;  opens  a  studio 
in  Boston,  invents  a  pump,  be- 
comes an  itinerant  portrait 
painter,  129;  marriage,  paints 
many  portraits  in  Charleston, 


442 


INDEX 


S.  C.,  paints  Representatives, 
Washington,  130;  removes  to 
New  York,  131 ;  paints  La- 
fayette's portrait,  death  of 
wife,  132;  becomes  president 
American  Academy  of  Arts, 
death  of  father,  attends  lec- 
tures of  Professor  J.  F.  Dana, 
impressed  by  clutch  of  elec- 
tro-magnet, duly  adopted,  134; 
revisits  Europe  to  paint,  135; 
theory  of  colors,  136;  em- 
barks for  New  York  on  the 
Sully,  discusses  telegraphy 
with  Charles  T.  Jackson, 
137;  draws  plans  for  a  tele- 
graph, 138;  extreme  poverty, 
139;  disappointment  in  Wash- 
ington, his  pictures  described 
by  his  son,  Edward  Lind 
Morse,  141 ;  appointed  as 
professor,  141 ;  outlines  first 
telegraphic  model  and  experi- 
ments, 141 ;  model  illustrated 
and  explained,  143;  Life  by 
S.  I.  Prime,  invents  relay, 
questions  Joseph  Henry,  145; 
drawing  by  Morse  of  his  al- 
phabet, 150;  takes  F.  O.  J. 
Smith  as  partner,  153;  refused 
an  English  patent,  obtains 
French  patent,  opposition 
from  Czar,  154;  friendship 
with  Daguerre,  154;  takes 
photographs,  155;  discusses 
photographic  art,  155;  Con- 
gressional disappointment,  157; 
victory  at  last,  158;  line  built 
from  Washington  to  Balti- 
more, 158;  first  message,  159; 
business  small,  its  tariff,  de- 
termines longitude  of  Balti- 
more, 160;  recording  instru- 
ment, code  of  abbreviations, 
161 ;  Government  refuses  to 
buy  patents,  162;  telegraphic 
speeds,  163 ;  opposes  reading 
by  ear,  164;  experiments  with 
cables,  166;  exhibits  telegraph 
in  Vienna  and  Paris,  dis- 
approves printing  telegraph, 
168;  second  marriage,  Pough- 
keepsie  home,  legal  contests, 


169;  gift  from  nations  of  Eu- 
rope, 170;  banquet  at  Delmon- 
ico's,  172;  statue  erected  in 
Central  Park,  New  York,  un- 
veils Franklin  statue,  174; 
final  illness  and  death,  person- 
ality, 174 

N 

Name-plate,   Roman,   316 

Needle,  thatching,  with  eye  near 
point,  347 

Nelson,  Charles,  on  John  Erics- 
son as  draftsman,  243 

North  Carolina  buys  patent 
rights  from  Eli  Whitney,  90; 
annuls  purchase,  91 

"  Novelty,"  locomotive,  Erics- 
son, 223 

O 

Ogden,  Francis  B.,  suggests 
sounding  gage  to  John  Erics- 
son, 228 ;  who  gives  Ogden's 
name  to  steamer,  230 

Ogden,  William  B.,  partner  of 
C.  H.  McCormick,  302 

Ogle,  Henry,  reaper,  282,  283, 
284 

Olmsted,  Denison,  his  "  Biog- 
raphy of  Whitney,"  quoted,  85 

Osborne,  D.  M.,  Co.,  manufac- 
ture Gordon  self-binder,  306 


Page,  Charles  G.,  dynamo,  119 
Painting  by  air-blast,  391 
Paper,     dearness     during     Civil 
War  prompts  quest  for  cheap 
sources,  375 ;  straw  as  ingredi- 
ent, 376 
Parkes,  Alexander,  vulcanization 

process,  184 
Parrott,  R.  C.,  reinforced  guns, 

234 

Patent  Office,  U.  S.,  loose  meth- 
ods, 295 

Peace,  gifts  from  war,  96 
Pettibone,  Judge  Henry,  notices 
straw  available  for  paper,  376 


INDEX 


443 


Pine,  jack,  for  paper  pulp,  379 
Pitt,  William,   rippling  cylinder, 

281 
Plow,  cast-iron,  invented  by  E. 

A.  Stevens,  25 
Plucknett,    Thomas    J.,    circular 

saw  in  reaper,  281 
Pope,    Franklin    L.,    on    Alfred 

Vail,  152 
Powell,  John,  sued  by  Miller  & 

Whitney,  83 
Pratt,    John,    writing    machine, 

321 

Printing,  its  significance,  315 
Progin,     Xavier,     writing     ma- 
chine, 322 
Pusey,  Philip,  letter  from  C.  H. 

McCormick  on  reapers,  279 


Q 

Quaintance,  H.  W.,  on  farm  ma- 
chinery, 308;  on  drift  to  cities 
from  country,  309 


in  New  York  Tribune  office, 
420 

Remington,  E.  &  Sons,  manu- 
facture Sholes  typewriter,  330, 
33i 

Rider,  William  and  Emory,  be- 
friend Charles  Goodyear,  196 

Rippling  cylinder,  William  Pitt's, 
281 

Rodgers,  Commodore,  criticism 
of  Fulton's  submarine  war- 
fare, 68 

Rodman,  T.  J.,  reinforced  guns, 

234 

Rogers,  John  R.,  inventions, 
432 

Rotary  hook,  Wilson,  364 

Rubber,  artificial,  202;  substi- 
tutes, adulterations,  203;  com- 
pounding, 204 

Rumsey,  James,  improves  tubu- 
lar boiler,  12;  steamboat,  pro- 
pelled by  water-jet,  55 


R 


Railroads,  begin  in  England,  24; 

first  American,  24 
Rakes,    revolving,    invented    by 

Joseph  Mann,  281 
Ramming      effect      of      wooden 

steamer  on  dock,  33 
Raynal,    Alfred    W.,    on    John 

Ericsson,  271 
Reapers,   early  models,   England 

and  Scotland,  280 ;  Ogle's,  282 ; 

Bell's,    284;    Manning's,    Hus- 

sey's,    290 ;    Mann's,    Marsh's, 

305 
Redheffer,   Wilhelm,   "  perpetual 

motion,"  71 

Reel  of  reaper,  origin,  281 
Rees,  Abraham,  telegraphic  code, 

150 
Regenerator,    invented    by    Rev. 

R.  Stirling,  improved  by  John 

Ericsson,     225;      adapted     to 

steam  engine,  241 
Reid,  Whitelaw,  president  Lino- 
type Co.,  419;  adopts  linotype 


Saint,  Thomas,  sewing  machine, 
338,  339 

Salmon,  Robert,  reciprocating 
knife  for  reaper,  281 

Sand  blast,  Tilghman,  first  sug- 
gestion, 381;  diagram,  382; 
developments,  383 ;  etching 
with  sand  from  hopper,  385; 
cleans  castings  and  masonry, 
ornaments  glass,  387 ;  iron 
sand  used,  388:  sand  and 
water,  treats  files,  rasps,  and 
milling  cutters,  389;  removes 
paint,  390 

Sand,  erosion  by,  379 

Sargent,  John  O.,  letter  from 
John  Ericsson,  236 

Schilling,  electric  telegraph,  150 

Schuckers,  Jacob  W.,  double- 
wedges  for  justification,  429; 
career,  430 

Schwalbach,  Matthias,  aids  C.  L. 
Sholes,  323 

Scientific  American,  describes 
Pratt  writing  machine,  321 ; 
prediction  fulfilled,  322 


444 


INDEX 


Screw  propeller,  John  Stevens, 
14;  its  early  inventors,  15; 
Ericsson's,  230 

Seal,  Arthur  G.,  on  typewriting, 
337 

Sellers,  Coleman,  on  sand  blast, 
38i 

Sellers,  George  Escol,  scoured 
with  sand  and  water,  389 

Sewing  machine,  Thomas  Saint's, 
338;  B.  Thimonnier's,  340; 
John  Fisher's,  341 ;  Grover  & 
Baker's,  341 ;  Walter  Hunt's, 
342,  359;  Elias  Howe's,  349; 
J.  A.  E.  Gibbs',  366 ;  legal  con- 
test at  Albany  ends  in  com- 
promise, 361 ;  modern  devel- 
opment, 366 

Seymour  &  Morgan,  manufac- 
ture McCormick  reapers,  299 

Shift-key  in  typewriter,  335 

Shirring,  or  puckering,  rubber 
fabrics,  197 

Sholes,  C.  L.,  birth,  317;  learns 
printing,  removes  to  Wiscon- 
sin, becomes  postmaster,  318; 
founds  Excelsior  Church,  a 
Democrat,  opposes  slavery, 
319;  becomes  editor  Milwau- 
kee Sentinel,  and  News,  320; 
devises  numbering  machine, 
321 ;  designs  typewriter,  322 ; 
keyboard,  323;  first  patent, 
324,  325 ;  early  .tests,  326 ;  im- 
provements, 328 ;  manufacture 
by  Remingtons,  330;  mortal 
illness,  death,  332 

Sholes,  Louis,  typewriter,  331 

Sholes,  Zalmon,  typewriter,  331 

Silliman,  Benjamin,  teacher  of 
S.  F.  B.  Morse,  123 

Silvered  Book,  Upsala,  316 

Singer,  Isaac  M.,  inventor  and 
business  organizer,  357;  sys- 
tem built  on  his  foundations, 
358 

Slight,  James,  describes  Bell's 
reaper,  290 

Smith,  Francis  O.  J.,  partner  of 
S.  F.  B.  Morse,  153;  letter 
from  Morse,  157 

Soule,  Samuel  W.,  partner  C.  L. 
Sholes,  321 


South  Carolina  buys  patent 
rights  from  Eli  Whitney,  89; 
annuls  purchase,  91 

Springfield  Armory,  latest  rifle 
compared  with  Whitney  mus- 
ket, 100 

Spruce  as  source  of  paper  pulp 
replaced  by  hemlock  and  jack 
pine,  379 

Standardization  in  manufacture, 
begun  by  General  Gribeau- 
val,  developed  by  Eli  Whit- 
ney, 96 

Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  opposes 
Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  304;  on 
value  of  reaper  to  the  North, 
3ii 

Stebbins,  Josiah,  notes  from  Eli 
Whitney,  82,  84 

Steinheil,  telegraphic  code,  151 ; 
writes  to  Morse  regarding 
claim  on  America,  171 

Stevens,  Edwin  A.,  railroad 
manager,  24;  invents  cast-iron 
plow,  25;  designs  fire-room 
and  forced  draft,  25 ;  experi- 
ments with  shot  against  iron 
armor,  31 ;  recommends  an 
armored  warship  to  U.  S. 
Navy,  31 ;  delays  in  its  con- 
struction, never  finished,  31 ; 
founds  Stevens  Institute,  33; 
reminiscences  of  Hon.  A.  S. 
Hewitt,  35 ;  stokes  Great  East- 
ern, 39 

Stevens,  Francis  B.,  on  screw 
propeller,  15 

Stevens  Institute  founded  by  E. 
A.  Stevens,  33 ;  President 
Humphreys  on,  34 

Stevens,  John,  birth,  5 ;  military 
and  political  services,  6;  mar- 
riage, 6;  New  York  residence, 
6;  buys  Hoboken  estate,  6; 
suggests  it  for  a  park,  7;  sees 
Fitch's  steamboat,  7 ;  his  own 
steamboat  described,  8;  its 
distinctive  features,  10;  the 
Phoenix,  1 1 ;  taken  by  sea  to 
Philadelphia,  u;  the  Juliana, 
ii ;  ran  on  the  Connecticut 
River,  12;  improves  water- 
tube  boiler,  13;  his  attempts 


INDEX 


445 


to  improve  steam  navigation, 
15;  advocates  railroads,  18; 
projects  a  line  to  join  New 
York  and  Philadelphia,  19; 
builds  first  American  locomo- 
tive, 20;  proposes  elevated 
railroad,  New  York,  20;  death, 
26;  philosophical  writings,  26; 
on  yellow  fever,  27;  pro- 
jected circular  iron  fort,  30; 
reminiscences  of  A.  S.  Hew- 
itt, 35 

Stevens,  John  Cox,  owns  yacht 
America,  30 

Stevens,  Robert  L.,  designs  a 
false  bow  for  the  New  Phila- 
delphia, 16;  establishes  a 
steam  ferry,  16;  plans  a  shel- 
ter for  pilot,  17;  designs 
T-rail,  21 ;  imports  a  supply, 
22 ;  and  "  John  Bull "  loco- 
motive, 23;  devises  elongated 
shell,  27 ;  improves  steamboats 
throughout,  27;  gives  eight 
wheels  to  locomotive,  28; 
yachtsman,  28;  builds  the 
sloop  Maria,  29;  a  founder  N. 
Y.  Yacht  Club,  29 ;  experiments 
with  shot  against  armor, 
31 ;  contracts  to  build  an 
armored  warship,  31 ;  experi- 
ments with  screw  propellers, 

Stimers,  Alban  C,  directs 
Monitor  on  first  voyage,  de- 
scribes fight  with  Merrimac, 
249 ;  gives  faulty  execution  to 
plans  of  shallow  gunboats, 
death,  Ericsson  educated  Sti- 
mers' daughter,  258 
Stirling,  Rev.  Robert,  invented 

regenerator,  225 
Stitches,  chain,  lock,  359 
Stockton,  Robert  F.,  orders  two 
steamboats  with  Ericsson  ma- 
chinery, steamboat  bearing  his 
name,  231;  the  steam   frigate 
Princeton    built    through    his 
recommendation,  233;  quarrel 
with  Ericsson,  235 
Strasburg  clock,  400 
Straw  in  paper,  376 


Strother,  General,  student  of  S. 

F.  B.  Morse,  139 
Swaim,  James,  telegraphic  code, 

I5i 

Symington,  William,  steamboat 
Charlotte  Dundas,  57;  in- 
structs Fulton,  58 


Tailor  bird  of  India,  346 

Taylor,  Frederick  Winslow, 
alumnus  of  Stevens  Institute, 
34;  quadrupled  output  metal- 
cutting  machines,  his  books 
on  scientific  management,  97 

Taylor,  Samuel  W.,  secretary  to 
John  Ericsson,  272 

Telegraphy  foreran  electrical  en- 
gineering, 119;  recent  ad- 
vances reported  by  Western 
Union  Co.,  172 

Tennessee  buys  patent  rights 
from  Eli  Whitney,  90;  sus- 
pends tax,  92 

Terminal  Building,  New  York, 
foundations  cut  by  Tilghman 
shot,  373 

Thimonnier,  Barthelemi,  sewing 
machine,  340 

Thomas,  Henry,  on  Ottmar 
Mergenthaler,  405 

Thomson,  Robert  William,  in- 
ventor pneumatic  tire,  205 

Thorwaldsen,  friendship  with 
S.  F.  B.  Morse,  136 

Thurber,  Charles,  writing  ma- 
chine, 323 

Tilden,  Professor  William,  pro- 
duces artificial  rubber,  202 

Tilghman,  Benjamin  Chew,  gen- 
ealogy, birth,  369;  education, 
370;  produces  hard  steel  shot 
for  treating  stone,  372 ;  enlists 
in  Union  Army,  earns  distinc- 
tion, wounded,  returns  home, 
re-enlists,  374;  unintentionally 
produces  paper  pulp  from 
wood,  375 ;  process  detailed  by 
himself,  377;  process  as  since 
modified,  378;  devises  sand 
blast,  379;  its  development, 


446 


INDEX 


384 ;  torpedo  experiments,  391 ; 
final  illness,  death,  392 

Tilghman,  Richard  A.,  brother 
and  associate  of  Benjamin  C. 
Tilghman,  371 

Timby,  Theodore  R.,  revolving 
turret,  254 

Tire,  pneumatic,  invented  by  R. 
W.  Thomson,  205 ;  recent 
forms,  207 

Tombstones  inscribed  by  sand 
blast,  383 

Tompkins,  D.  A.,  citations  from 
his  "  Cotton,"  83,  86,  89 

Touch  systems  in  typewriting, 
336 

Tredgold,  Thomas,  suggests 
T-rail,  21 

Typesetting,  its  details,  393 

Typewriter,  Sholes',  323,  325; 
three  plans  only,  332;  its  ele- 
ments, 332;  recent  models, 
333;  tabulator,  rivalry  with 
printing,  principles  of  con- 
struction, 334 ;  manipulation, 
335;  touch-systems,  336 


U 

Upsala,  Silvered  Book,  316 


Vail,  Alfred,  sees  Morse's  first 
model,  147 ;  becomes  partner 
with  Morse,  148;  improves 
Morse  instruments,  151 ;  arti- 
cle by  F.  L.  Pope,  152;  be- 
comes assistant  superintendent 
of  first  line,  159;  lays  under- 
ground conduits  which  fail, 
suspends  wires  in  air  with 
success,  159;  instruction  by 
Morse,  163 ;  improves  relay 
and  finger-key,  164;  why  he 
kept  in  the  background,  165 ; 
portrait,  158 

Vapor  cure  for  rubber,  184 
Virginia  wheat  crop,  276 


W 

Wagner,  Charles  R.,  on  Ottmar 
Mergenthaler,  415 

War,  gifts  to  peace,  96 

Watson,  Jessie,  prints  circles 
with  acorn  cup,  315 

Webster,  Daniel,  argues  against 
Fulton,  17;  portraits  and 
busts,  104;  procures  an  ex- 
tension of  Thomas  Blanchard's 
patent,  105;  argues  on  behalf 
Charles  Goodyear,  213 

Wedge,  double,  justifier,  Schuck- 
ers',  429,  430 

West,  Benjamin,  criticises 
Morse's  pictures,  124;  friend- 
ship of  King  George  Third, 
126 

Western  Union  Telegraph  Co., 
recent  advances,  172 

Wheel,  beginnings  of,  105 

Wheeler,  Nathaniel,  partner  of 
Allen  B.  Wilson,  365 

Whitney,  Eli,  birth,  memorial 
tablet,  manual  skill  in  boy- 
hood, 75 ;  teaches  school,  stud- 
ies at  Yale,  76;  repairs  ap- 
paratus, goes  to  Savannah, 
guest  of  Mrs.  Nathanael 
Greene,  77;  begins  model  of 
cotton  gin,  78;  takes  Phineas 
Miller  as  partner,  81 ;  gin  pat- 
ented, gin  toll  excessive,  82; 
saws  omitted  in  Whitney's 
patent,  consequent  trouble,  83 ; 
spurious  copy  of  patent,  84 ;  re- 
plies to  Governor  Jackson,  86 ; 
sells  patent  rights  to  South 
Carolina,  89;  to  North  Caro- 
lina, 90;  remonstrance  against 
brutality  and  dishonesty  in 
South  Carolina,  91 ;  claim  as 
inventor  upheld  after  investi- 
gation, 92 ;  note  to  Fulton,  93 ; 
begins  manufacture  of  fire- 
arms, 96;  contracts  to  supply 
10,000  stands  of  arms,  98 ;  fac- 
tory near  New  Haven,  meth- 
ods of  manufacture,  99; 
adopted  at  Government  Ar- 
mories, and  by  foreign  nations, 
100;  marriage,  mortal  illness, 


INDEX  447 

101;    surgical    devices,    death,  Withington,  Charles  B.,  knotter, 

personality,  102  3°5 

Wich,  Ferdinand  J.,  aids  Ottmar  Wolcott,    Oliver,    contract    with 

Mergenthaler,  422  Eli  Whitney,  his  aid,  98;  note 

Willis,  Harry,  befriends  Charles  from  Whitney,  99 
Goodyear,  185 

Wilson,  Allen  B.,  inventor  sew-  Y 
ing  machine,  362;  two-motion 

feed,    four-motion    feed,    363;  Yost,   George  W.   N.,   examines 

rotary  hook,  364  Shol<fs       typewriter,      recom- 

Wisconsin's     services     in     civil  mends  manufacture  by   Kern- 
war,  319  ingtons,  330 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY— TEL.  NO.  642-3405 
This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
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c  2 


TO  ID  JuiU;>?u 


DEC  13  1975  6  1 


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'R  2  2  1983      | 


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